Help Me, Save Me
by MyEdiction
Summary: He finds her but doesn't know who she is. She's on the run but she doesn't know from whom. He helps her but can he save her? - AH, sometimes OOC. Possible lemony future. Varying POV's. **On Hold**
1. Help Me

**So this is chapter 1 of Help Me, Save Me. It's short. I know but I promise each chapter after this gets longer. **

**I just wanted to give a quick thank you to everyone who encouraged me to post this. I could name names but you know who you are. You all get obessive emails from me as I yet again question what I write.**

**Twilight character names belong to Stephanie Meyer. All characterizations, plot lines, backgrounds and details belong to the respective author. No copying or reproduction of this work is permitted without express written authorization.****©2009 my ed-iction. All rights reserved worldwide.**

* * *

She could hear them, sense them running after her. She didn't know where they were or how close but she knew they were coming. It was only a matter of time until they caught up with her. She had managed to evade them for almost a full two weeks, escaping to this city, this country she had never been to. She was careful the entire trip over. Never looking directly at anyone. Barely acknowledging when spoken to. Even so she knew she'd be found.

It had been nearly three days since her last meal. She was weak and her strength to keep running was waning. She could hear the sound of rapidly moving foot steps coming closer, louder.

She stopped frozen in her tracks as she saw him in front of her. If he found her it was only a matter of minutes until the other one came upon her as well. When that happened she knew that was the end.

There would be no more running, no more hiding. There would be no more her.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here." He smiled at her twirling a knife between his fingers like a baton. He took a step closer to her and she stumbled backwards to get away, her back coming into contact with the wall.

This was it she thought. She was trapped. Swallowing slowly she looked up to meet her killer in the eyes. "Why me? I've done nothing, I've never even met you." She tried to stop the tears taking in a shuddering breath of air.

He smiled at her and she felt her stomach crawl. "It's nothing personal my lovely little reale*." Taking a step closer he ran the blade of his knife softly down her cheek and across her jaw. "God knows I'd much rather just keep you for myself. But I have a job to do and unfortunately you just aren't worth the loss of that pay check." He leaned closer to her and ran his nose from her neck to ear.

She shuddered again and pressed back against the wall wishing she could just melt into it and disappear.

Then she felt it.

His tongue came out and licked back down her cheek to her neck.

"Nothing saying I can't have a little taste of you for myself before collecting my money though is there?" He smiled wickedly at her and she felt something snap in her. Without a second thought she brought her knee up and caught him in the groin. She watched as he doubled over the knife falling to the ground with a loud clattering of metal against pavement.

Her brother would be proud she briefly thought as she watched him gasping for air.

Her brain raced as she processed the fact that he was on the ground heaving in pain. She took off like a bullet racing towards the lights coming from the streets. Out of the dirty alley. She broke through the dark dingy passageway, into the bright light out on to the street.

She had only looked up for a moment when she saw the headlights coming for her and then the sound of screeching tires as the shiny car came to a stop. She was shaking watching the tall man step out of his car. Her world gradually turning to a grainy black and white as he asked her if she was ok.

"Are you ok? Are you hurt?" This stranger asked her.

She looked up at him as the world gradually started fading to black and barely pushed the words out from between her lips. "Help me."

******

This was his favorite part of the day. The end. No more work. No more clients pestering him for deadlines that were due. Just him, his car, and the music he truly loved. Sighing softly he let the calming effects wash over him.

He briefly closed his eyes. No longer then a second and when he opened them there was someone in the middle of the road. Before his brain had time to process what his foot was doing he was hitting the break as his car came to a halt just inches from the ridiculous person in the road. Shaking his head wondering who stands in the middle of a road. He got out of his car and asked if they were ok. That's when he noticed it was a young woman standing in front of him.

She looked frightened. He saw that she could barely stand up as she started to wobble back and forth. Lunging forward he caught her just before she collided with the asphalt. Her eyes closed and he barely heard her whisper "help me." Then her whole body went limp.

Acting on impulse he carried her quickly to his car laying her in the passenger seat. He quickly drove away blending into the traffic. Not noticing the large man that ran out of the alleyway the girl in his car had emerged from.

* * *

*reale=royal in Italian

**Author Note: Ok if you managed to stay with me this far I'm willing to post chapter 2 sooner with enough motivation. I am several chapters ahead and I hope to stay several chapters ahead in the hopes of being able to post on a regular schedule. I'm thinking right now weekly updates as long as I can keep up with the writing. **

**So please give me your honest opinion on what you think so far and if you'd like chapter 2 sooner then a week. **


	2. First Sight

**So I'm an impatient h00r and I felt I owed my wonderful readers a bit more then the 1st chapter. For those of you have already read and reviewed I lurve you all. **

**So here is Chapter 2**

**Twilight character names belong to Stephanie Meyer. All characterizations, plot lines, backgrounds and details belong to the respective author. No copying or reproduction of this work is permitted without express written authorization.****©2009 my ed-iction. All rights reserved worldwide.**

* * *

Pulling away from the scene of the almost accident I had to ask myself again who was this girl? And more importantly what am I supposed to help her with?

Certainly by the look and smell of her she could definitely use help with cleaning up. Probably wants some food as well but something tells me that's not quite what she wants help with.

Looking over at her I noticed that while she may be dirty, she didn't have the appearance of someone who spent a lot of time on the street, she actually looked kind of cute. I returned my eyes back to the road ahead to avoid almost hitting anyone else.

She definitely has to be new to this lifestyle, but yet I have to wonder why?

I pulled into the underground parking for my apartment which I couldn't help but be thankful for because surely if I had to walk through the lobby carrying a strange, dirty and unconscious girl, it would raise more than a few eyebrows. Then I could almost guarantee that both of my sisters would show up knocking on my door wondering who she was. I was determined to get those answers myself before having to put up with the Spanish Inquisition.

Parking in my usual spot I made sure to be careful while lifting her. It's not that she was heavy, she's actually quite small, but more I didn't want to wake her. Looking closely I could see the dark shadow's under her eyes and could tell that even if she hadn't passed out she definitely needed the rest well before now.

I held her small frame close to my body while I waited for the elevator to stop at my floor. And actually under the smell of the street I could detect a faint sweet smell coming from her, like a berry and vanilla mixed together. Almost like her own scent couldn't be masked no matter how hard you might try to.

Finally making it to my floor I carried her slowly into my apartment. I debated whether I should remove some of her clothing before laying her in my bed. I know I'd be more comfortable if I was her, but something told me she wouldn't be too thrilled with waking up to see she was undressed, even partially, and in some strange bed.

I carefully laid her on my bed pulling a blanket up over her small frame and made my way into the living room to sit down and think about the days events. Scrubbing my hands up and down over my face I started to wonder who the girl was yet again.

I yanked roughly on my hair making it even worse then before I began to think over the events that led up to me taking some strange, helpless girl back to my place. All I know is I need to help her. With what I'm not sure. I just knew in the brief moment I that I had seen her face I couldn't leave her or trust her with anyone else.

Laying back on the sofa and closing my eyes I slowly started to drift off to sleep with the image of her face being the last thing I remembered.

******

I awoke slowly. Aware that my entire body felt about as limp as wet spaghetti. Slowly opening my eyes I vaguely noted that I had absolutely no clue where I was. My brain slowly registered the fact that I was in very comfortable bed. The best bed I laid in, in weeks.

I looked around slowly noticing that the room looked decidedly masculine. But still no idea as to where I was and how I ended up here.

Laying back down on the bed I closed my eyes racking my brain trying to come up with an answer. That's when it hit me.

The past two weeks. The running, hiding and finally being found. My body bolted upright in panic.

THEY found me.

I immediately started looking for any means of escape my heart beating about as fast and hard as a jackhammer. That's when my eyes landed on the photo next to the bed. It was of a beautiful family. I stared at it confused. I didn't know any of those people in the picture. But they were absolutely stunning. I studied it closely seeing the happy looking couple looking at each other with love in their eyes and what appeared to be their children smiling into the camera. There was something slightly familiar about the son in the picture. Maybe it was the odd hue of his hair. It reminded me almost of a shiny penny.

A choked sob caught in my throat as I thought about my own family. There really wasn't anyone left but me and my brother, but still I didn't believe I'd ever see him again. Not anymore at least. I could only hope he was safe where ever he was and that he wasn't worried about me. I sighed softly and blinked back the onslaught of tears before they fell.

I slowly stood up from the bed on wobbly legs. At least if this place belonged to a family then there can't be any way that They actually got me.

Taking a few steps forward I noticed two doors in the corner of the room. One was obviously the bathroom as I could spy a toilet through the crack. Which meant the other most likely led out of the bedroom I was in.

I hesitated at the door handle trying to control my breathing. Did I really want to open the door and find out what was on the other side. What if They were really on the other side of the door. What if They had harmed that beautiful family in the picture because of me.

Oh God!

It would be all my fault if something happened to them. It's not enough They want me dead for some unknown reason. But I couldn't live with myself if They harmed that family because of me.

I stepped back from the door. I wasn't sure I could deal with knowing that an innocent person or people had been hurt because of me.

Sitting back down on the bed slowly I started going over the situation again. I remembered him catching up to me. The knife, his words, and oh god his tongue. Shaking I struggled to remember what happened after that.

Standing back up I began pacing back and forth knowing I was missing something, something important but my brain wouldn't cooperate. What was I missing?

Sneaking another look at the picture on the bedside table my eyes locked onto the younger man's face.

That's it! I remember kicking him then running out of the alley. Almost getting hit and the man from the picture emerging from his car. But sadly that seemed about as far as my brain was willing to go for the time being.

Sighing softly I decided that maybe They hadn't done anything to the family in that picture. Maybe the man from the picture had taken me home with him. But why? I know I didn't know him. Maybe he recognized me? Merda! If he does know who I am it's only a matter of time until he decides to say something about me and my disappearance to someone. And once he spoke then it's only a matter of time until I need to run again. They will find me again I know it.

This is ridiculous. I just need to face what's going on. I need to know what he knows. I can't keep assuming and wondering. I just need to march up to that door open it and demand to know where I am and what the strangely attractive man from that photo knows about me, and why he took me home with him.

******

I awoke with a start, blinking as my living room slowly came into focus, shaking my head to clear all the cob webs of sleep.

The girl.

I need to find out who she is and why she needs my help. I got up and slowly made my way to my bedroom door. I hesitated just outside the door with my hand inches from the door knob. What if she's still sleeping? If she's not awake I don't want to be the one to wake her. Putting my ear up close to the door I listened closely and that's when I heard the light tread of feet coming towards me.

Ok so she's awake, either that or she's not alone which is ridiculous because I'm on the 15th floor. No one could get in through a window up here.

I watched my hand slowly move towards the handle and took a huge breath preparing to open the it.

******

I got up off the bed, making my way towards the door. Determined to find out where I am and who's on the other side of the bedroom. I paused just a foot short.

What If he's gone? Oh god what if They really did find me and hurt the man from the photo.

Damnit!

I need to stop with the 'what if's'. I need to march up to that door, open it and face what's on the other side.

Taking another step closer I watched my hand reach for the knob. Stopping just centimeters from it I watched it slowly turn and the door crack open. My breath catching as I saw a pale hand on the door knob. Definitely a man's hand. Following the hand up the arm my eyes locked on a pair of stunningly bright green eyes that reminded me exactly of what wet emeralds would look like. I'm pretty sure I also forgot how to breathe as I stood there transfixed as the door swung open revealing something a million times better then the picture next to the bed could ever hope to capture.

Then I heard his voice. And I was lost.

******

My eyes met the most stunning pair of brown eyes as I stared at the girl that has been hiding on the other side of my bedroom door. Then I remembered my manners

"Hello my name is ..."

* * *

**A/N: Eeek! So don't hate me for the blanked out name. I'm sure most of you have an idea already who my damsal and hero are but, well, I'm still keeping it hush until chapter 3. So if you have any ideas on who it is I'd love to hear them. Chapter 3 will not be posted for awhile or at least until I finish the current chapter I'm on and it's fully beta'd. **


	3. Introductions

**So here's 3 I'm sure most of you know who my hero and damsal are. I just hope no one is disappointed. Thanks goes to my masta-beta, elfinchakie, who regularly gets chapters shoved in her box. She knows she likes it too. **

**Disclaimer: Once again I own nothing but a sick kitty. Stephanie Meyer own's the rest. **

* * *

I can't believe it. He just introduced himself and what do I do?

Stare at his lips and watch them move but not listen to a single thing he's saying.

I blinked a couple times and shook my head trying to clear it. I'm sure he thought I was mentally challenged with the way I just stood there not moving with a blank look on my face.

"Hello?" He asked. "Are you ok? Do you need to lay back down or maybe eat or drink something?"

Merda* he was talking again and I still wasn't listening. I just nodded my head and he came over to me grabbing my arm and leading me back to the bed to sit down.

"Stay right here," he said, "I'll go get you something to drink."

I just nodded unintelligently again and dropped my head into my hands when he turned to walk away. Ok I can do this. Sure he just may be one of the most attractive men I've ever seen but that's no excuse to sit and stare at him like a some brain dead halfwit. I was raised better then that. If I wanted to I could probably converse with him in at least three different languages. Instead I'm tongue-tied by the pretty.

I jumped suddenly when a glass was thrust into my face. I smiled weakly at him chastising myself silently for not being able to act normally in his presence again and croaked out a thank you. I quickly drained the glass and set it on the bedside table. He smiled down at me and asked if I was feeling better. I steeled myself and gave myself an internal pep talk so I could act like a normal human in his presence. Nodding I said "Yes, thank you."

He stood up in front of me reaching his hand out for mine pulling me up with him. "Would you like to start over?" He asked. I could only nod again. Not trusting myself to speak quiet yet.

With my hand still gripped in his he said quietly, "Hello, my name is Edward Cullen and you are?"

I smiled at him and softly repeated his name in my head. Edward, an old fashioned name but a strong name and Cullen I think that was English. "My name is Bella. It's very nice to meet you Edward." I said shaking his hand.

His responding smile blinded me and I softly gasped at the beauty of it.

Suddenly his expression turned very serious and his brows drew together in thought. I watched him anxiously wondering what could be making him think so hard, waiting for him to speak.

Finally he said. "So Bella would you mind telling me what you were doing in the middle of the street dead on your feet?"

What do I tell him? That I'm on the run? Two deranged killers are after me? Tell him who I really am? Ya I tell him all of that and he'd be looking for a way to get rid of me faster then I could blink. And lets face it I'm exhausted, I need a break from the running. I need someplace warm and safe to stay even if its only for a couple of days. Which leads me back to what do I tell him. Maybe some half truths. Leave out some of the info that is sure to make him run for the hills but tell him just enough to explain my current state of dress and why he found me on the streets. So I went with what I could tell him, for now.

"Well you see my parents, both of them, I've lost them and I really don't have anyone else or anywhere to go." By the time I had finished I was chewing on my bottom lip viciously, a habit that I haven't used in years, and wringing my hands.

"When you say lost?" he asked.

"Umm, well they've both died." I answered.

"I'm so very sorry," he said softly.

And I just waved it off. "Don't worry it happened a couple of years ago. I was doing what I could to keep everything together after they passed but I guess I just couldn't do it anymore." Well ok that's not really the truth. I could really afford to live however I wanted where ever I wanted.

"So you really have no one? No aunts or uncles maybe a brother or something?" He asked.

"No, no one. Well maybe my brother but he's in the army and I haven't heard from him in awhile. Plus what could he do to help," I said. Which was true.

He just nodded at me and got that thoughtful look, a little v forming between his eye brows. And I got the irrational need to reach up and smooth it for him. I didn't know what to do though. I definitely didn't want to push him into making a decision about whatever he was thinking about, so I just waited. I kept quiet and placed my hands to my side, trying to stop my nervous wringing.

I wish I knew what he was thinking about. Either put me out of my misery and tell me I can't stay or let me stay at least for the day. Maybe a nice hot shower. I stealthily sniffed myself and altered that to a bath and a hot shower maybe followed by a decontamination shower. I caught a glimpse of my watch and quickly dropped my arm to hide it. The last thing I needed right now was for him to see my vintage Cartier gold watch. That'd pretty much blow everything to shreds.

"Tell me Bella," he said and I just about jumped out of my skin when I finally heard his voice. "Do you have a last name or is it just Bella?"

"Scopare!" I cursed softly. And he raised an eyebrow at me. Great now he knows I can at least talk in another language. Ok Bella think what's your last name. You can't very well give him your real last name that'd be to easy to find out about you. What then?

"I'm sorry my last name is Dwyer." There, my mothers maiden name. There weren't any more Dwyer's left actually, and besides she didn't come from the same level of society that my father came from. Father married below him when he fell in love with Mother. Even if he decided to do some research he should come up blank.

"Your name is Bella Dwyer?" he asked. I nodded as confidently as I could. He didn't really seem to believe me but I could tell he was going to let it go for the moment.

"Well Bella would you like a shower and I could wash your clothes?" I swear the man was a mind reader or maybe he could just smell me.

"That would be great, thank you." I said with gratitude. He pointed to the bathroom and told me to just leave my clothes on the floor and he'd pick them up to wash when I was done.

I watched him walk over a dresser and pull out a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. "Here," he handed the clothes to me. "You can put these on until your clothes are clean and dry."

I muttered my thanks and made my way to the shower. I closed the door and leaned back against it cursing myself. I needed to watch what I said or he'd definitely catch on and I can't be found. If I'm found then it's only a matter of time until They find me again.

******

I watched her turn and walk towards the bathroom. I didn't really know anymore about her than I did prior to talking to her. She seemed so hesitant to give me any information. But I guess to be fair it looks like she's gone through hell and back.

As I was listening to her talk I could here a distinct accent but couldn't place it till she said 'Scopare', which is basically the equivalent of fuck in Italian. Which means if that's her native language then she's a long ways from home. If she's really got nothing left why would she come to America though. It seems like an awfully long way come if you've lost everything.

I know she's withholding the truth from me as well. She's positively horrible at lying. I don't even know her yet, but I do know that. And if she's Italian then I don't know how she expects me to believe that Dwyer is her last name. So obviously that's not her real name. Although Bella is her real first name, Italian for beautiful. Which is fitting.

I waited until I heard the water turn on before making my way into the kitchen. I was hungry and I'm sure if I was she must be starving. I was throwing together the ingredients for some pasta and thinking more about Bella. She was dirty and had a bit of a smell to her but the clothes she was wearing definitely seemed of good taste. So maybe at one point she did have money. She was definitely an enigma. Apparently living on the streets, but well dressed. If she was Italian she definitely had a good education because she could speak the English language better then most who claimed it to be their native tongue. Circumstances must have forced her to the streets. Circumstances that are obviously stopping her from telling me who she really is.

I was lost in thought and making dinner when I heard bare feet padding across the hardwood floors. I turned to see her walking towards the kitchen in a way too big for her t-shirt and shorts. Her hair was wet and down. She looked adorable in the too big for her clothes but sexy as hell because they were my clothes. Suddenly it didn't matter who she was or why she was here. Just that she was here and I never wanted to let her go. I watched her blush a wonderful shade of pink under my stare, yet I couldn't find it in myself too pull my eyes away from her to stop her embarrassment. When I noticed she was no longer walking towards me but stopped about ten feet away, looking at her feet, I finally glanced away back to the food in front of me.

"So," I cleared my throat, "you, umm, look better. Shit I don't mean that you didn't look good begin with. You just look… cleaner?" I finished lamely.

I chanced a glance in her direction and she was still blushing but looking at me with the most adorable smile.

"So are you hungry? I've made pasta. I know it's not much but I guess I wasn't really expecting to have company this evening. Not that you aren't a great surprise it's just…" I stopped rambling when I heard her wonderful laughter.

"Pasta is fine. Actually I'm pretty sure at this point you could just give me a plate and I'd be perfectly happy to eat that." She said sheepishly

I nodded at her and turned back to the stove. "Is there anything I can do to help you?" she asked.

I shook my head, "No I've got it. Why don't you sit and relax while I finish up in here."

"Are you sure? I feel kind of useless I mean you've already done so much for me I feel like I should do something. You practically rescued me and took me back to your apartment when you could have just left me where I was or taken me to the hospital or even the police. You don't even know if I'm safe to be around. What if I'm some killer? What if your harboring a fugitive?" She seemed so frantic I almost let her take over.

"Or what if someone is after me?" She said the last so quietly I could barely hear her.

"Bella, please, just take a deep breath." I said calmly. "I don't know what's happened but you seem to have gone through quite a bit. And to be honest I'd rather not have you fainting again on me. If that happened I might be forced into taking you to a hospital. So please just take a seat and rest while I finish this up ok?"

She looked like she wanted to argue with me but upon mentioning the hospital she nodded here head softly and took a seat at the counter watching me work.

While finishing up dinner I thought about her last statement, about someone being after her. That was more telling than anything else she had said to me so far. Just who would be after someone like her?

She didn't strike me as the type to have someone chasing after her.

But then again she was right. I don't even know her. Maybe she had done something horrible that forced her to run.

It's just nothing about her seemed to fit.

She seemed to be well educated, she had manners, she even blushed for Christ sake. I don't think someone who had done something horrible to warrant being on the run would still be able to blush.

Finishing up I turned around smiling at her. "Everything's all set. If you want to just grab the plates and bring them to the table we can eat." I nodded my head towards the plates I had taken out of the cabinets earlier.

She picked them up and followed me to the table. I watched as she laid everything on the table making sure everything was meticulously placed. I didn't own a full silverware set but watching her I could only guess that if I had she would know how to set it all properly. Just another part of the riddle that is Bella I suppose.

We settled into a comfortable silence as we ate. I would sneak glances at her and I'd catch her doing the same. We'd both smile at each other, she'd blush again, and we'd look down at our plates and take another bite.

Dinner passed in relative silence and she offered to clean up and not wanting the see her in a panic again I agreed and told her I'd go throw her clothes in the wash. When I got back from the laundry room I walked into the kitchen to see her bent over looking at the dishwasher with a quizzical look on her face. I chuckled quietly and she stood up suddenly looking at my shyly.

"Umm, I've never had to use one of these." She said shrugging her shoulders adorably.

"That's no problem." I started to load the dishwasher with soap and pressed the start button. "Why don't you go lay down or relax in the living room while I go clean up from work. Feel free to make yourself comfortable and," I pointed to the TV, "watch whatever. I won't be long."

She nodded at me and bit her lip walking towards the sofa and I turned to walk towards my bedroom to hop in the shower and change.

*******

I watched him walk away and slowly made my way over towards his entertainment system. I let my eyes roam over his home taking it all in. The first thing you couldn't help but notice was that it was impeccably decorated. Someone obviously took a lot of pride in how everything looked. There were a couple of overstuffed leather sofa's in rich browns. Beautiful artwork on all the exposed brick walls. Impeccable decorated but also very warm and welcoming.

I turned away from the entertainment center and noticed the large expansive bookcases on the opposite wall. Immediately I was interested in what he had on those shelves. I began the scan all the titles noticing that quite a few were first editions and definitely not cheap. I was impressed.

He had a fair amount of classics with some more contemporary titles mixed in and two full shelves dedicated entirely to architecture. I was just reaching for one of the new titles when I saw the leather bound first editions of Pride and Prejudice and gasped. It was rare, and I thought impossible to find. I should know I had been looking for them for years. Really ever since I first read Jane Austen I had been looking for these books. It was the three volume version of the first printings. I pulled them off the shelf looking at them reverently, almost afraid to touch them. All the information I could ever find was that they belonged to one family in England and were passed down, but no one knew what family was supposed to have them.

I sat down on the sofa to get a better look at them, flipping through the pages. I could smell the history in this book imagine the many people who have spent countless hours pouring over these pages.

I heard a throat clear behind me and I jumped up clutching them to my chest. He quirked his eyebrow at me and I looked down seeing that I had all three books clenched close to my body. I carefully laid them down on the coffee table and turned to face him fully.

I finally noticed what he was wearing. He had on just a plain white t-shirt with green pajama pants on, his hair looked almost dark brown while wet and a piece was hanging down the middle of his forehead. I wanted so badly to push it back off his face but restrained the urge.

"I see you've found my books," he said.

"Did you know you have what may be one of the only first editions of _Pride and Prejudice_?" I pointed to the books, "I've been looking for these for years and just assumed they had gotten lost in time."

"Umm, I know I have those books," he shrugged. "My grandma had left them to me when she passed away. Are you saying they are special?"

My eye practically bugged out of my head when he said that so nonchalantly. Like it was no big deal that he had, what I considered to be, one of the rarest books ever.

"I don't think you understand," I had to make him understand. "These are from what I've been able to find out one of the only first editions left. These are worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, I'd do about anything to get these books in my own collection."

He shrugged again. "Those books," he said pointing at them, "have been in my family for years. I think my grandma got them from her grandma who may have gotten them from her grandma who I'm pretty sure got them as a birthday present. And since I'm the only one of my siblings who have expressed any interest in literature she gave them to me."

"Edward, do you know how amazing it is that you have these? In most literary circles these are the holy grail." And unbelievably he shrugged again.

"I take it you like to read then?" He quirked his eyebrow up at me to emphasis his question. "I mean you seem to have done quiet a bit of research into this. And I have to wonder what you did prior to spending time on the streets of New York to have run in literary circles."

Oh HELL! Why can't I just keep my mouth closed. Now he definitely knows something is up. And I don't even know what to tell him. I don't want to lie anymore then I already have. He's been so nice to me up until now and he really could have kicked me out by now.

I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times trying to say something to him. Anything really. I'm sure I looked like a fish out of water trying to take their last breath but failing miserably.

******

I watched her struggle for something to say. She looked so adorable with her mouth opening and closing and I could see a million different thoughts pass behind her eyes.

"Look Bella, I know something is going on here, something you obviously don't want to tell me."

"It's not that…" she started to say.

I held my finger up to her to stop her words. "No, just let me finish ok?"

She nodded her assent. "What I was going to say is I know you don't want to tell me, and that's ok for now. I can tell there is obviously more to the story then your able to tell me. I'm not going to make you leave or kick you out for not telling me everything at this moment. But I do want you to know that I may want some answers later and I'd really appreciate it if you could give me those answers. OK?"

"Thank you," she sighed. It seemed like by me telling her it was ok I had just lifted the weight of the world off her shoulders.

I looked at the clock and noticed it was almost one in the morning. "C'mon, let's get you to bed. I know I could use some sleep. You can have the bed and I'll take the couch.

"Oh no I couldn't. You've done so much already I have no problem sleeping on the sofa. You can have your bed." She insisted. "I'd feel even worse taking more then I already have."

"Alright as long as you let me know if there's anything else I can do for you. I'll get you some pillows and blankets."

I gathered everything she'd need to sleep and after making sure she was comfortable I made my way towards my bedroom. I must have laid in bed for hours just pouring over everything that had happened today. Everything started out normal enough. Just an average ordinary day. Went into work, spent the day looking over blue prints with my dad for our newest job. That average day however fishtailed into anything but. I now have an unknown girl? Woman? An unknown person in my living room sleeping on my couch. For once I have absolutely no idea what tomorrow is going to bring, and for some reason I'm ok with that.

* * *

*Merda- Shit

**A/N: The next chapter should hopefully be posted much sooner. It's a brand new POV for you to read and I really enjoyed writing it so I hope everyone likes reading it.** **All thoughts and concerns are definately welcomed and encouraged. **


	4. Surprise Visitor

**Thanks to both my awesome beta-fish's elfinchakie - go check her fic's she's got a great cxb that is worth the read called Pleasantly Unexpected- and swieloch. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, however I did discover there is a doctor by Edward Cullen in MD. I briefly thought about moving there just to have him check my vitals.**

* * *

The next couple of weeks seemed to have flown by.

I spent the first couple of days at home with Bella to make sure she was comfortable with her surroundings. I eventually had to go back to work though when both dad and mom called me concerned. Despite my protests that I was fine, I knew my mom was just chomping at the bit to come over and make sure I really felt fine.

It took about two weeks but we had started to fall into a comfortable routine. Every morning I'd force myself out of my apartment and away from Bella and I'd spend the whole day at work trying not to rush back to her. We still barely knew anything about each other.

Well, no that's not right, I still barely knew anything about her. On the other hand I had told her all about myself. We discussed my parents, my sisters, what I did for a living. But as soon as the conversation would start to flow into more personal information about her she'd quickly change the subject and I'd sigh and we'd both find something else to talk about.

I was hoping very soon to get more information out of her. She was an enigma to me still even after all this time of practically living together.

I had managed to avoid my sisters pretty well considering all three of us lived in the same building, just on different floors. But barely seeing each other for almost two weeks was virtually unheard of for us. It was only a matter of time until I'd have to suck it up and get together with them or bring them by to meet Bella. Or worse yet they'd come knocking and I'd be completely unprepared. Plus I had no idea how Bella would take to meeting new people, she hadn't left my place once. The one time I mentioned it, it sent her into a panic.

Exactly two and half weeks after Bella came into my life I decided I couldn't put off my sisters. I'd call both Alice and Rose to make plans to do something tonight and if things went well maybe introduce them both to Bella. I was starting to feel pretty bad leaving her home alone all day long and it'd be easy for her to go visit someone who was already living in building.

******

I just know that Edward is hiding something from me. We live in the same building but yet I think I've seen him twice in the past two weeks. That's just unheard of for us. We may be five years apart in age but we were always close growing up. He's my big brother and always kept an eye out of me. Although looking at us you'd never guess by our looks. I was short, he was tall. I had dark brown hair, his was this weird coppery bronzish brownish color. It wasn't normal but then I don't think I ever heard a single complaint from any girl who's ever seen him, including most if not all of my friends. It was annoying and I just know they were hanging out with me to see Edward. Just like I'm positive that any guy who came back to our house was hoping to get a glimpse of Rose, who was a year older then Edward and had six years on me.

Rose is the blond bombshell of the family. Once again looking nothing like Edward or I, but with good reason because she was adopted. Mom and dad had tried for years to get pregnant before discovering that they couldn't. It broke their hearts and that's when they decided to adopt. They got her when she was only three months old and fell in love. Then two months after that discovered that mom was pregnant. They had Edward almost one year to the date after Rose was born. Both Edward and I were surprises but loved thoroughly.

The three of us were closer then, well, three peas in a pod. Sure we had our sibling squabbles but who doesn't? It's that closeness that has me pulling a Mission Impossible on my brothers apartment right now, I was almost tempted to download the theme song for a little mood music. I know he's at work so there's no chance of seeing him or for him to ever find out I was here. I just know there's more going on. Every time I called I swear I could hear a woman's voice in the background and as soon as I'd ask who was there he'd quickly hang up making some excuse about the T.V being on.

Humph!

Like I can't tell the different between someone talking in the background and when a T.V is on. One time I went as far as standing outside his door when I called and pressing my ear up against it to see if I could hear anyone. Of course that's the time when I don't hear a thing. Not a peep of noise other then my brothers voice.

So here I am stealthily sliding the key into the lock and turning it slowly listening to the click. Well I guess if you have a spare key its not really Mission Impossible is it?

But still he should have expected it. Whatever made him think he'd get away with barely seeing me for over two weeks is beyond me. I was going to find out what was keeping him away from me and when I found her that hussy was going to be out on the street faster then she could blink. Because lets face it any woman who won't let a man see his sisters isn't a woman that should be with my brother.

I heard a loud noise as soon as I turned the door knob and it made me stop in place. Crap someone was there. Well fine if it's the hussy keeping my brother from his favorite sister and Rose, yes you heard me I'm the favorite, then I'll just have to put her in her place.

Steeling my resolve I swung the door open.

"Oh dear brother are you here?" I called out as I pushed the door close behind me.

"Edward it's been forever and I miss yooouuu!" Ok so I know he's not home but I know someone IS here.

I started to make my way through his place. First through his kitchen then the dinning room. I got to the hallway leading towards either the living room or towards his bedroom. The living room was too obvious so decided the bedroom would be the best bet. In fact that's probably where they spent most of their time. I shuddered at that thought and cursed my brain for conjuring the image of my brother in bed with someone.

I opened the door to his bedroom and stuck my head in looking through the crack.

"Come out, come out where ever you are." I said in a sing-song voice.

I started to wander around his room looking at everything. I checked the bathroom quickly.

No one there.

So I thought maybe his closet. Plus it was time to update. We were in the middle of the fall season and I haven't even begun shopping for his winter wardrobe. It wasn't like I had a shopping addiction. I'm just a fashion major and it's my job, well will be my job, to keep up on current trends.

After about an hour of rummaging through Edward's closet I decided his wardrobe wasn't completely unmanageable but we'd need to go shopping soon.

I called it quality time, bonding between siblings, keeping the familiar ties tied tight. I think he looked at it as a thinly veiled form of torture. However he wanted to look at he knew there was no getting out of it and I think deep down he really did like it.

About half way to the front door I suddenly remembered why I was here. The Hussy, yes capital H because that's her name now, is hiding somewhere in my brothers apartment and she needs to learn a thing or two about the Cullen family.

I had just turned to walk back towards his bedroom when I heard a loud crash.

******

I had just settled in to start reading one of the many new books Edward had picked up for me. After my little geek out session with his copy of Pride & Prejudicehe said I needed to read something a bit more current. When he came home the fifth night in a row to find me reading the same book, yet again, he just shook his head at me with that damn crooked smile that turned me into a giddy school girl, and mumbled something about needing to get caught up on the times.

Just when I was going to take offense to that statement I remembered all the times he had tried to bring up anything to do with me and the hasty topic changes I'd make. One of his conditions for allowing me to stay was that if he wanted to know something about me I was to tell him. Basically by putting him off each and every time I was in essence breaking our arrangement. So I bit my tongue and saved my argument about the classics never being out of style.

The next day when he came home from work he had a huge bag from Barnes & Noble full of books for me. I'm almost positive he just went to the best sellers section and bought a copy of everything that was there, because I couldn't contain my laughter when I pulled out a copy of What To Expect When You're Expecting. When he asked what I was laughing at and I showed him he turned beat red and started to rub the back of his neck looking really embarrassed. He stumbled over an apology and even beat red and tongue tied he still managed to look stunningly handsome.

I let him know it was ok and not to worry about it. Mumbling to myself about immaculate conception.

I wasn't expecting anything. At least not in that way. However I was still waiting for my streak of good luck to end, for Them to finally find me and put an end to the first piece of happiness I've had in years.

Which is why just as I was sitting down to start reading some ridiculous teen fiction book about sparkling vampires when I heard something at the front door. I panicked. Edward was gone at work and as of yet he never came home for lunch so it couldn't be him. Which in my mind left only one other option. They had caught up to me. My good luck was at an end.

Immediately dropping the book I was reading I ran through a mental list of places to hide. Running into Edward's bedroom I ran towards the closet but immediately dismissed it. That was to obvious. Then I decided on the bathroom. Maybe in the shower. The curtain was dark and you couldn't see a shadow from behind it.

Just as I was closing the closet door I caught sight of a baseball bat. I quickly grabbed it and dashed towards the bathroom. I was just stepping into the shower and pulling the shower curtain closed when I heard a voice call out faintly from the front of the apartment.

Shaking like a leaf I waited to be discovered. And that's when I heard a woman's voice say "Come out come out where ever you are."

Almost dropping the bat in my surprise I wondered why there was a woman walking around Edward's apartment. Did he have a girlfriend he hadn't told me about? I never asked and he never volunteered so I just assumed. But I guess you know what the say about people who assume.

I felt nauseous thinking about the fact that maybe he did have a special someone else, and I didn't even know why I felt that way.

The man was simply gorgeous. So why shouldn't he have someone special and probably equally as gorgeous to spend his time and share his life with. Having spent my fair share of time around models I'm sure he could walk the runway if he wanted to. Which just goes to prove how good looking he is. He leaves me tongue tied and I've been around some of the worlds best looking guys for the last five years of my life.

When the bathroom door opened I about wet myself but just as fast as it opened it closed. I could still hear the strange woman in his bedroom and my irrational thoughts of jealousy came back, but eventually I got bored. How long could it take for her to do what she needed to do? If she was dating him then she had to know he was at work.

Sitting down on the bench in the shower I laid the bat down carefully at my feet and decided to just wait it out. After what felt like forever I finally heard her walk out of his bedroom and decided to give it a couple more minutes before getting out.

Carefully pulling the shower curtain open I started to step out. But my foot got stuck on the wall of the bath tub. Having nothing around me to grab on to I grabbed the shower curtain which promptly ripped from the pole as I started to fall. It was like it was happening in slow motion and because I had gotten myself wrapped up in the shower curtain I couldn't even brace myself for my fall.

I landed on the floor with a loud oomph.

Just fantabulous.

I hoped Edward's little surprise visitor was gone before I fell. If not I wasn't quite sure how'd explain to his girlfriend that I was hiding in his shower.

******

I knew there was someone here.

Running back towards Edward's bedroom I was ready to find out just who was keeping my big brother from me.

Pushing open the bedroom door I moved towards the bathroom door. There on the floor was a girl no bigger then me with a shower curtain wrapped around her.

My mouth dropped open in shock. This wasn't really what I expected when I decided it was time to check up on Edward. Well to be honest I'm not sure what I thought I'd run into when I got here. Maybe someone a bit more slut-tastic then the girl in, were those Edward's college sweat pants? I thought I tossed those years ago.

I shook it off quickly and ran over to help the girl get up.

Once we finally got her untangled I managed to get a good look at her. She was stunning. Her hair was thick and a shimmering chestnut color. Her complexion was flawless and helped her dark brown doe eyes pop. Well I guess if my brother is going to be holed up in his apartment he couldn't have found a better girl to do it with. I think **I** was starting to form a bit of a girl crush on her.

She started blush and I realized I was staring at the poor girl.

"Hi my name is Alice Cullen and you are?" I said, and watched her eyes get really big.

"Umm.. My name is Bella?" She seemed kind of unsure. "You're, ah, Edward's sister?"

"Yes I am, youngest and most favorite. Just don't tell Rose that when you see her, she'll definitely try and disagree with you. So Bella why don't you tell me about yourself, and why you were fully clothed in the shower," I looked behind her and saw the baseball bat, "with a baseball bat?"

She squeaked and turned an even brighter shade of red at my mention of said baseball bat.

"Well, you see, when I heard someone coming in I wasn't sure who it was and since I knew Edward was at work it couldn't be him. And not knowing anyone else in the city I really didn't want to take my chances so I thought this might be the best bet."

Quickly grabbing her hand I hauled her out into the living room. "Soooo, I know all about the bat now what about yourself. You know you look so damn familiar to me. It's like I've seen you before."

She had that deer in headlights look to her and then I realized that I was babbling. "What exactly do you want to know about me?"

"Well let's start with how you met my darling brother. He's been harder to get a hold of then the new line from Aro Volturi. And well I guess I can see why because Bella your beautiful. Huh did you know your name means beautiful in Italian that's fitting don't you think?"

"Alice?"

"And O-M-G Voltuir is Italian too. Wow that's really a coincidence don't you think? You know now that you mention it you kind of sound like your Italian. Wouldn't that be just awesome if you knew Aro Volturi?"

"Alice?"

"God I would simply die if you knew him." I knew I was getting that dreamy look in my eyes but just couldn't help it. Most people dream about meeting actors or musicians. Not me. Designers were my famous people.

"ALICE!" I finally stopped when she yelled my name. Looking at her I noticed she had a kind of guilty slightly shocked and panicked expression on her face. Was I right?

******

"Alice just settle down ok. Your talking way to fast. How about just one subject at a time," I said.

I stared at Alice in amazement as she just kept talking. And my God she talked so fast. I didn't think it was possible for a human mouth to move that fast. It started with me asking her what she wanted to know about me and she just kind of ran with it. First it was about how I met her brother and then some how moved on to my name and what it meant and next thing I knew we were talking about Aro.

As soon as she mentioned his name my heart went crazy and my brain instantly tried thinking of a million different scenarios. If she was familiar with the Volturi brand then there was a chance she'd recognize me and then what? I don't even want to ponder what would happen if she realized who I was.

* * *

A/N: Just another piece of the puzzle. I'd love to hear your thoughts on who you think Bella is. If you're right I might let you know, or I might be evil and tell you maybe you're right. But it's worth the risk don't you think?


	5. I Know Who You Are

**Sorry for the delay but my lovely beta elfinchakie has been a bit detained. The lucky little h00r won tix to the New Moon Q&A in London. So being the lesser mortal that I am I couldn't very well ask her to beta this for me. Well no, I asked but I didn't expect her to. So my thanks for this chapter goes to Olivia Twisted for her help.**

**Same disclaimer, Stephanie Meyer owns these characters.**

* * *

What was Bella hiding? There was obviously something she was hiding from me, but what? I thought back over my little rant about Edward and how they met. I remember saying she sounded Italian which brought me to Aro Volturi.

And that's when she got the panicked look on her face.

Ok so think Alice it has something to do with Aro Volturi. I really don't think she's of any relation to him because, seriously, who in their right mind wouldn't own up to that fact. She didn't strike me as the bitchy model type, so that was out.

I watched her push up her sleeves on her shirt, well Edward's shirt, and caught a glimpse of a gold watch. Looked to be Cartier from where I was sitting. Vintage Cartier.

Maybe…

"Hey Bella?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

"Yes?" she looked nervous for some reason.

"Is your name short for Isabella?"

I watched as she hesitated, "Umm… yes it is."

I just nodded, I thought so.

There was only one Isabella I knew in conjunction with the Volturi name. Which would explain why she looked familiar. I had seen her in pictures, but really who wants to believe what's right in front of their face.

No average person would believe it, but there she is sitting right across from me chewing on her bottom lip nervously and wringing her hands.

HRH Isabella Marie Swan, Princess of Volterra.

I wonder if Edward knows. Probably not. He's pretty clueless sometimes and I doubt he spent much time researching royal families and their designers. Which Aro Volturi basically is. He's been designing clothing for the Princess for about 5 years now. He actually declared her his muse. He claims his most beautiful work always came from designing for her.

Really, leave it up to Edward to end up with a Princess in his apartment. What was she doing in Edwards apartment though? That's right she never did tell me how they met. She weaseled her way out of an explanation when I kind of started to babble again.

"So Bella," I started, "how exactly did you and my brother come to know each other?"

"Well he kind of ran into me on the street." She said looking slightly bashful.

Hmm, not a lot of information but something tells me getting information from her is going to be like pulling teeth. Maybe I should just be honest with her and let her know that I know who she is.

"Look Bella, I'm going to be honest with you here, Ok? And I really hope that you'll be honest with me in return. I just want you to know you can trust me."

I watched her slowly nod her head. So I took a deep breath and continued.

"I know who you are Princess." She shot straight up and started to move towards the bedroom then stopped and started muttering to herself. Then I watched in astonishment as she ran for the front door. Well that certainly wasn't what I was expecting.

"WAIT!" I yelled, as I got up and ran after her. "Bella please don't go. I promise I won't tell anyone. I'm just trying to figure out why you are here."

She hesitated at the door just long enough for me to catch up to her and stop her from leaving.

"Look, I don't know the reason why you're here and maybe you don't want to tell me. Which is fine. I'm jus trying to be honest with you and I promise I would never do anything to hurt anyone. So if you don't want me to tell anyone I won't."

"Not even Edward?"

I must have looked confused after that question because she went on. "Look it's not that I don't want to tell him what's going on. I do. I wish I could but I can't drag him into this. He's been so great to me and I hate to think where I'd be if I hadn't met him. But I don't know if I could handle his reaction to the truth."

"Bella I don't think you know my brother very well. It really takes a lot to phase him and even then I've never seen him over react to anything. It's a bit unnerving how easily he handles some news. I think if you told him he'd really be ok with whatever is going on here."

"Alice I just don't think I can tell him. I'm not sure I can tell you. It's a lot to drag someone into and from what I can tell so far neither of you deserve to be put in the middle of what's going on."

She took a deep breath and then continued on quietly and I had to strain to hear what she was saying.

"This is the safest I've been in weeks, in probably almost a month and I don't want to do anything to ruin that. I can't keep running. Eventually I'll run out of places to go, but I can't stay here though because if They find me and I'm here I don't want to think about what might happen to Edward."

She looked like she was about ready to cry. I had no idea what was happening to her but it definitely didn't sound good. She was running for weeks? She was royalty for crying out loud what could she have to run from?

"Bella, who is They?"

She looked at me with her eyes wide open in astonishment. I guess I wasn't supposed to hear what she was saying before.

"They? I don't know who They are. I just know They want me. I've never done anything to anyone and suddenly I have two people after me trying to kill me."

She gasped and covered her mouth quickly realizing what she said. I have to admit my mouth kind of popped open when she said people were trying to kill her.

"Bella are you sure you don't want to tell me? I can't even begin to wonder what your thinking and what you've gone through but it'll help to talk to someone about it, won't it?"

Her eyes were starting to tear up and all I wanted to do was move over to her and hug her close. Instead I stayed were I was as I watched her get up and start pacing in front of me. I didn't want to do anything to discourage her from telling her story. I just can't imagine what it must be like for her to have been carrying this on her shoulders for so long. And why hadn't Edward asked her anything yet?

"Bella, why hasn't Edward asked you any of this? You've been here for awhile haven't you? How is it none of this has come up between the two of you?"

She looked at me shamefully. "He's asked but when he does I change the subject. He may have saved my life Alice I can't put anymore on him."

"But does he even know he saved your life since you won't tell him anything?"

"Well remember when I said he ran into me on the street? He literally almost hit me with his car before I fainted. I think he knows he probably saved my life without me telling him that I have two killers after me and one had just caught up to me just moments before he found me. Merda! I have said way to much."

"Bella please, please, tell me everything. You shouldn't have to go through this on your own and I can help you. Edward can help you. Hell our whole family can help you. We may not be royalty but we do have connections in the city. We can make sure you stay safe. Just please let me know what's going on. You keep hinting and giving me little pieces of information but it's just not enough." I tried to convey through my words and my face that I sincerely wanted to help her.

******

I didn't know what to tell Alice. She seemed so sincere and I really do feel bad for not telling Edward everything. He should know that he's risked his life by letting me stay with him. But to tell Alice everything about how I came to be here? I just didn't know if that was a good idea. I really did want to trust Alice though. She seemed so nice and I felt like I could trust what she was saying to me.

Even though the past couple of weeks were stressful it felt great to be treated like a normal person. There was no bowing and curtsying and kissing ass. I was just Bella and although Alice knew who I was she still treated me like an average person.

Maybe I can tell Alice. I just don't think I'm ready to tell Edward yet. Everyday I find myself falling for him just a little bit more, if I did tell him and he decided to walk out of my life I'm not sure I'd be able to handle that.

"Alice I want to tell you what's happened so far but I think when I tell the whole story Edward should be here. I've already put off telling him too often, he deserves to be around to hear it first."

I watched as she nodded and then got a look in her eye that I can only describe as up to no good. I could almost feel my face morphing into a grimace. She doesn't strike me as the kind to give up to easily and something tells me she still has a million questions to ask me.

"Ok Bella I agree. You should probably tell Edward first. He might not be too thrilled to know you spilled the beans to me first when you've been practically living with him for a couple of weeks. So that being said, if you won't tell me why you are here you have to give me a little information about Aro Volturi. I need to know everything. How'd you meet him? What's it like to know he'll design anything for you? God I would simply die if I was you. And god Bella you're royalty. I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like. I have got to get details."

I mentally cringed when she said she wanted to know what it's like to be royal. I wish I could say it was all beautiful people at beautiful parties in beautiful locations. At least I can tell her about Aro, she seemed to have a genuine love of his work. Besides if it wasn't for him she'd probably no clue who I was. I still haven't determined if that's a good or bad thing, that she knows who I am. If it turns out to be bad then maybe I'll inflict Alice upon him for making me so noticeable when I just want to blend in for once.

Oh, that's a horrible thought! Alice isn't an infliction she's just a bit… energetic. It'd drive Aro positively insane to be around that much energy, he likes to keep a calm workspace.

I stopped my internal dialogue when I heard a throat being cleared and glanced up to see Alice looking at me with an expectant look on her face. "You wanted to know what it's like to have him design for me?"

She nodded her head vehemently. "Well it's nice," I started.

"Just nice?" she interrupted. "Seriously, it's just nice? Finding out Clinique is having a sale is nice, having one of the top designers ever willing and able to design anything for you is beyond anything. It's… it's… Oh god there aren't words," she finished on a happy sigh

I chuckled softly at her as she started to get this dreamy look in her eyes. "Ok it's amazing. I've never felt as beautiful as I do then when I'm wearing one of his creations." Except for maybe when I catch your brother looking at me when he thinks I'm not looking, but I didn't say that out loud. "I really do see it as an honor to have him design for me. I've never really gotten the whole, I'm his muse thing. He's really like a second father to me." I grew quiet after that, my thoughts focused on my own father who died almost three years ago. I've made my peace with the loss of my parents but it doesn't mean that thinking about them doesn't make me a little bit emotional.

I looked over at Alice and saw nothing but understanding in her eyes. She must know what happened. I cleared my throat pushing back the tears, giving her a tentative smile, "so what else would you like to know about Aro?"

"Well I'm currently a fashion student at Parson's, I actually did my thesis on Aro, so I know quiet a bit, but you've met him, he's designed for you. I guess I'm just a tad bit jealous and extremely envious of you," she finished looking at me a bit sheepishly. I couldn't help but smile at her.

"How about if things work out I'll do my best to introduce you to him."

She squealed and I'm pretty sure she broke the sound barrier. "Oh Bella! You don't have to. I knew as soon as I saw you we'd be best friends but I could never ask you to introduce us!"

"Trust me it wouldn't be a problem, and you have been so nice to me. Besides your willing to keep my secret," her brow furrowed, "for now anyways. I promise I will tell Edward, so introducing you to Aro is the least I can do for you."

She flew towards me and hugged me tightly. I let myself relax into the hug. The last time I had received a hug this genuine was right before I watched my parents board their plane. My brother was already in the royal army, and they were getting ready to leave after accompanying me to school. As much as I missed my mother and father I think I missed my brother more. The last time I had seen him was at their funeral. But I once again pushed those thoughts back and hugged Alice, delighted I had found a friend in her.

******

When she offered to possibly introduce me to Aro I didn't think things could get any better, so I couldn't help my natural response to hug her. It didn't even cross my mind that I was hugging royalty. I probably should have been bowing or curtseying to her but then she hugged me just as tightly as I was hugging her.

I'm not sure what I expected when I decided to break and enter into Edward's apartment today, but finding a best friend wasn't it. A shameless hussy with no regard for others maybe, a princess not so much. Only Edward could managed to something like this and not even realize it.

"Bella what do you want me to call you?"

She looked at me confused, "What do you mean, call me?"

"Well you're a princess, royalty, next in line to become the Queen of Volterra. What should I call you?"

"Can't you just call me Bella? I mean I know all those things are true but I'd rather just be Bella with you and Edward. I don't want to be treated differently I just want to be me." She was starting to sound a bit irritated, but then her voice softened. "It's not that I'm not grateful for all I've received in life. Because I am and when the time comes I'll take responsibility for my future and my country but for now I just want to be normal Bella. For once I just want to be like everyone else. Sure being royalty has it's perks but it comes with such immense responsibility and I'm already dealing with so much. Can you just call me Bella, please?"

I just nodded at her. I wasn't really sure what to say. If all she wanted was to be Bella then as long as she was living with my family and I she would just be Bella.

After that she and I settled into a comfortable conversation. We talked about everything. It turns out we were the exact same age. She told me about school at Cambridge and what that was like, I told her about Parson's. When she asked to see some of my designs I think I lost it. I raced down the stairs to my place not even patient enough to wait for the elevator. By the time I got back to Edwards I was out of breath but ecstatic to show her some of my latest designs. I watched in anticipation as she poured over the designs one by one.

"Oh Alice! You truly are talented. There is no way I'm not introducing you to Aro now. Promise me that you'll design something for me someday? I mean if everything works out." She looked so sad after she said that and I could feel the tears pricking my eyes. All I could do was nod and wrap my arms around her. We broke apart soon after.

She laid down my portfolio and we were quiet for a minute or two before I thought of another question I wanted to ask her. I was hesitant though. It kind of went against her 'Just Bella' rule. I tossed the idea back and forth before noticing her looking at me with one eyebrow up quizzically.

"Alice is there something you want to ask me?" She asked, apparently I wasn't being as sneaky as I thought because she read my face like an open book.

"Yes but I think it goes against you just being Bella, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

She shook her head at me, "out with it Alice I'd rather you ask me now then let it slip where someone else can here you."

"Have you met the Prince's?"

"Prince's? What ones?"

"Prince William and Harry."

"Oh of course. They are a bit older then me, well William is. Harry and I tired to date once but it just didn't work out. I think we did it more because our families expected us to. We still talk occasionally though."

Sweet Baby Jebus wrapped in a blanket and laying in the manger. She's dated Prince Harry. I'd be a bit more impressed with William but I think that's mainly because I have a bit of a thing for blondes. Then things kind of hit me. I was sitting next to a princess who had dated one of the most well known princes in the world. I needed to stop that line of thought or I'd definitely start treating her differently and I wanted her to be comfortable with me.

"So Bella have you ever watched The Soup with Joel McHale?"

"I'm sorry the what with who?"

I laughed at her, although I suppose it wasn't her fault she didn't know. "It's this great show on E!. Joel McHale, the host, makes fun of all the stupid stuff celebrities do and pretty much points out the ridiculousness of our entire culture."

She just shrugged her shoulders, "Sure it sounds good."

So we settled in to watch a re-run that was on last week. She had just started to relax and started laughing when Joel pulled out the fake gun to shoot one of his interns with the gun shot sound that goes off too soon and the intern falls to late, when we heard the front door jiggle. We both turned towards the front door.

"Bella, I'm home. I brought Chinese and I was wondering if I could talk to you about something." Edward called out.

******

I was exhausted. First I was woken in the morning from a great dream that involved Bell and I, in a compromising position, only to get to work to find out that our newest client's didn't like our design for their new building. After spending the greater part of the day with some of our best architects we finally were able to come up with a design aesthetic that they seemed to like. Once we had finished with that I had spent the rest of the day working on my next design and obsessively calling Alice to see if she wanted to get together for dinner soon. I wanted to go through with my plan for letting Alice know about my new houseguest and tell her I was going to see if Bella would like to meet her.

I must have called her at least seven times and each time it would go straight to voice mail. Never has anyone called Alice's phone to have it go straight to voice mail. That thing was like a third arm for her. She never went anywhere without it and she could be in church and she'd find a way to answer when you called. I was slightly worried that maybe something happened to her but I'm sure if it did alarm bells would have went off throughout the entire family. We were all very close and if anyone else was worried about her I would have heard something. Maybe she was mad at me for avoiding her so she was payment back by starting to avoid me.

Well I guess I'll just run the idea past Bella tonight about meeting my sisters. I'll explain to her that they both live in the same building and she wouldn't have to leave her safety zone if she didn't want to. I'll explain how she can trust my family.

For now though all I want to do is get home. I want to come home to the sight of Bella curled up on one of my leather sofa's reading, what I hope one of the new books that I bought her. It's a little staggering how fast I got used to the idea of coming home to her. Every day for the past two weeks I'd come home and as soon as she'd see me she'd look up from her book and smile at me and it'd feel like my heart had stopped and then restarted only to beat at a furious pace. My own smile would come unbidden to my lips and then she'd blush lightly and go back to her reading.

One night I had come home to a kitchen in utter disarray and a very flustered Bella. She explained how she wanted to try and make me dinner but because she had never cooked before she didn't think she did a good job. I tried not to laugh at her as I took in the eggs burnt to the pan and the black toast. She leant truth to the saying 'I can't cook I'd probably burn toast.' I'm not sure I've actually met someone who could do that. Since that night she's stayed away from the kitchen and I made dinner every night, with the exception of those nights when I was too tired to want to cook, like tonight. Tonight I stopped and picked up Chinese, I couldn't remember if she said she'd had it before but I was hoping she'd be open to trying something new.

I must have been on auto pilot, just going through the motions of getting home because next thing I knew I was standing in front of my door trying to juggle my messenger bag, dinner, and dig out my keys.

"Bella I'm home. I brought Chinese, and I was wondering if I could talk to you about something?" I asked. I put my bag down and started to pull all the containers of food out of the brown bag they were packed into. Suddenly I realized I hadn't gotten a response, which was odd. I stopped what I was doing and walked towards the living room. "I didn't know if you liked Chinese but if you don't I can go get something else." I stopped walking and finally looked up when I heard a suspicious giggle.

"Alice?" What was Alice doing here? I could feel my head moving back and forth between both Bella and Alice feeling like I was at a tennis match. Bella looked adorable per usual in my oversized clothes and Alice looked like she was up to no good as usual.

I heard Bella giggle and I looked over at her. She was smiling at me and damn if I wasn't getting lost looking at her soft brown eyes.

"So big brother, when were you going to tell you were shackin' up with Bella over here?" My eyes grew wide when Alice said we were 'shackin' up' and Bella turned beat read.

"Alice! We are not… we haven't… that is to say we aren't doing anything to each other." At least we weren't doing anything in real life, my dreams every night, on the other hand, got increasingly more vivid.

"Relax Edward I was just giving you a hard time. I got the whole story from Bella here." And of course any mention of Bella immediately drew my focus back to her. "Well Eddie boy I hate to interrupt this romantic dinner you have planned for the two of you so I'll just be heading out. Have a great night you two crazy kids and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

That snapped me out of my Bella induced haze. "Let me walk you to the door Alice, I just want to make sure you actually see yourself out." I grabbed Alice by her upper arm and quickly led her out of my apartment.

"Alice why are you here?" I asked in a hushed tone, even though we were out in the hall I didn't want Bella to over hear. "I've been trying to get a hold of you all day long to try and set up dinner and maybe talk to you about Bella and then I come home from work and your what? Best friends all of a sudden?"

"Relax Eddie-kins," I couldn't help the growl that came out when she said my name like that. She knows I hate any variation of Edward that isn't Edward. "Wow Edward." she drew out my name when she said it this time, "you need to calm down. Look I have seen neither hide nor hair of you in the past two and a half weeks and I was just curious as to what was going on. You know it's not normal to go that long without seeing or talking to each other and I was just curious as to what was going on. Plus if you want to blame someone blame yourself for giving me a spare key." She finished smugly.

She was smiling at me like she was some innocent angel. "Just tell me that you didn't freak her out Alice. I've been trying to make her comfortable here and I wanted to work her up to meeting you and Rose. God I can't imagine what she went through when you just decided to barge your way into our," I watched her eyebrow go up when I said our. "I mean my home."

Her smile got impossibly larger when I said 'our' and I just knew I was in for a world of hurt with that little slip. "Don't worry Edward we just talked a bit about her… after she fell out of your shower. BTW you might want to buy another shower curtain soon if you plan on getting clean without flooding the bathroom."

"Why would I need to get a new shower curtain? Actually you know what don't tell me. I'm not sure I want to know."

She just gave me a wicked smile, and started to walk down towards the elevator. "Oh and Edward I'd love to have dinner with you soon. Maybe after we go shopping for your winter wardrobe. Also you should probably get something for Bella to wear. I'm sure you think she looks cute in your sweats, and don't get me wrong she does, but I bet she would like to look like a normal woman."

All I could do was grumble at her. Why she decided shopping was a form or sibling bonding I'll never know. I'm still convinced she does it when she's mad at me for something. In this case though, I couldn't help but acknowledge that Bella might like something more to wear then my clothes, although she did look beautiful in them. "Ya, ya, Alice. We'll do shopping and dinner soon. But only shopping for Bella. I don't need to update my winter wardrobe it's just fine the way it is."

"Whatever you say big brother. Have your people call my people to setup a date." And with that the elevator doors closed. I made my way back into my apartment and couldn't help but wonder what kind of mischief the little tornado had managed to tear up in the amount of time she was here.

I walked back into my kitchen to find Bella on her tip toes reaching for something on the top shelf. What she thought was up there I wasn't sure but she looked pretty precarious. I walked up behind her and put one of my hands on her hips, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and reached up to help her. As soon as she felt my hand on her she froze a bit, but then to my surprise she sifted off her toes and I felt her body slowly melt into mine. Feeling her small frame pressed up against my larger one was absolute nirvana. I never wanted to leave from this position as long as I lived as long as I got to feel her close to me.

What happened next felt like an out of body experience that was happening in slow motion.

I leaned in close to her ear to ask her what she was reaching for at about the same time she turned her head towards me to ask what I was doing. I got ensnared in her gaze and she appeared to be trapped in mine. Her lips parted and I could feel her breath ghost across my lips. My eyes darted to her lips and I swallowed hard. I watched as her eyes lingered on my lips and my head tilted down towards hers at the same time she seemed to tilt her head up to mine. Without thinking I pressed my lips to hers softly, almost cautiously. Afraid that if I pressed to hard or moved to fast she'd try and get away. When I felt her lips press back against mine I wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled her to me deepening the kiss. Her arms gingerly wrapped around my shoulders and I swiftly pressed her up against the counter. I felt her tongue against my bottom lip and opened my mouth to allow her entrance. She tasted divine and I had to remind myself to go slow with her still. I may have initiated the kiss but I was going to let her lead. I didn't want her to regret any steps that were made and frankly I knew if I took over she'd end up in my bed and I wasn't sure she or I were ready to take that big of a step yet.

Finally I tried to pull apart to catch my breath but her arms remained wrapped firmly around me. When I finally gathered my wits I noticed that she was looking down at the floor and not at me. I hoped to god she wasn't feeling ashamed of what happened because god knows I wasn't. Then I heard her breath catch and realized that maybe her shoulders weren't heaving because she was trying to catch her breath.

I put my thumb and forefinger under her chin to try and tilt he face up to mine. She stubbornly refused to move an inch. Selfishly I slid both hands to the nape of her neck and I bet down to look her in the eyes, "Hey, what's wrong? Please just look at me." She still wouldn't look at me so I moved both hands up to cup her jaw and forcibly tilted her face up to mine putting our faces only inches apart and she whimpered softly.

I shouldn't have kissed her. "Hey please don't cry. I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have kissed you. I pushed to hard and too fast and that was my fault. Just please don't cry."

To my horror she broke down sobbing right in front of me. I didn't know what else to do so I wrapped my arms around her and she fisted her hands in my shirt and clung to me like her life depended upon it. All I could do was stroke her back and whisper I was sorry. Then her head started to shake back and forth in a negative motion. She pushed away from me and I stumbled back utterly dejected. She didn't want me to even touch her now, not that I could blame her. I should have just kept my hands and my lips to myself. I can't believe I messed things up this bad. We'd probably be laughing together while we ate if I hadn't touched her. As it was she probably wanted to get as far away from me as possible and I had absolutely nothing to stand on to convince her to stay with me.

Fuck! The one girl I find who I actually like to spend time with and I make her cry with the first kiss. I couldn't stand there and watch her cry her heart out anymore over a stupid move on my part. So I turned my back to her and felt my shoulders sag in defeat as I tried to gather myself.

"I'm sorry Bella. I never should have kissed you. It's my fault and if you want to leave that's fine. I'll call Alice and she can come up and get you. You can stay with her and you have my promise that I'll stay away."

"No." I heard her croak out. "Please don't leave me." The shaky quality to her voice broke my heart all over again, but if she wanted me to stay I would despite my instincts telling me otherwise.

"Bella I'm so very sorry. I should never have put you in this position." I rasped out my own tears were starting to prick my eyes.

"Edward it's not you. I'm not crying because you kissed me." She still sounded heart broken but her voice sounded stronger, had more conviction behind it.

I couldn't help the slightly crazy laugh that broke free of my lips when she said it wasn't because of my kiss. "Bella I kiss you and then you cry. You cry so fucking hard I think your heart is breaking in two and your trying to tell me it wasn't because of the kiss? I'm sorry but I have a really hard time believing that."

Chancing a look over my shoulder I saw her shaking her head back and forth. "No. It's not you, oh god this is going to sound so cliché, but it's me. I should never have kissed you to begin with." I felt my face fall, she didn't want to kiss me at all. "No wait I don't mean it like that. It just isn't fair for me to kiss you when you have no idea who I am. I should have told you before now what's going on with me."

I was afraid to let myself hope that maybe there was more to it then me being a colossal fuck up. "So what are you trying to say? You wanted to kiss me just not now?"

She smiled softly at me her eyes still a little watery.

"Yes," she said bashfully. "But I never should have kissed you back," she added on quickly. "You're already in this too deeply and I should have told you what is going on and who I am before we kissed. It's not fair that I've already pulled you into my situation and you have no clue as to what that situation is. I think it's time I tell you who I am and what's happened to me to get me here."

All I could do was nod.

"Maybe we should be a bit more comfortable for this. It's kind of a long story and I am almost positive you will have more then one question for me."

I followed her into the living room and she sat on one side of the sofa turning sideways and folding her legs gracefully under her so she could face me on the other side.

"First I should probably tell you my real name."

I raised an eyebrow dubiously at her. "You mean Dwyer isn't your real last name?"

She shook her head no and then took a deep breath straightening her back, throwing back her shoulders and raising her chin before starting. "My name is Isabella Marie Swan, Princess of Volterra."

My eyes must have popped out of my head and I'm pretty sure I heard her incorrectly. Did she just say she was a princess?

* * *

**A/N: It may have been pointed out to me that not everyone knows what the HRH stands for in front of Bella's name. So for those of you who don't know it stands for Her Royal Highness. Chapter 6 is in the works as we speak, and is yet another new POV. Chapter 7 I'm thinking brings us back to our favorite couple and we may or may not be finding out what happened to Bella. **


	6. A Brothers Worst Fear

**I'm complete fail and I apologize for how long this took. Sincere apology and notes about chp 7 will be at the bottom. **

**Thanks goes to my best beta in the whole wide world, elfinchakie. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, I just like to play with S. Meyer's characters a bit.**

**.**

* * *

I couldn't help the stupid smile as I made my way up the drive to my family's country estate. I was finally going to get to see my little sister. I just got my discharge from the royal militaryand was looking forward to this Christmas. The first one with any member of my family since before my parents passed away.

I felt truly horrible at having to leave Bella on her own after our parents death in the plane crash. If I didn't think her personal guard had her well protected I probably never would have left. In the end it came down to my father. He was so proud to see me following his footsteps, in joining the royal military, that after he passed away I couldn't let him down by not serving.

That's all behind us now, I know Bella has moved on from their deaths and so have I, and no matter what, we will always have each other. She was going to be home for her first Christmas since going to university at Cambridge.

Which brings me to the stupid smile plastered on my face. I finally pulled up to the front door not even waiting for the footman to come and open my door for me. Bounding up the stairs I threw the door open. "Isabella Marie Swan! Get your little butt down here and come say 'Hi' to your favorite brother." I shouted out.

I waited for a minute or two for her to come walking out of where ever she was hiding, probably the library. When there was no response I opened my mouth to yell for her again making my way towards the staircase, but before I could say anything I noticed the faces of the staff around me. My steps faltered and I stopped walking.

Something was wrong.

Every face was in varying states of shock and horror.

Instantly I felt my gut tighten. The last time anyone had that look ok their face my parents bodies were never recovered from the English channel. Where was Bella? Why hadn't she answered me yet?

No, no, no. NO!

I started running through the house, moving from room to room looking for her. Throwing open doors and calling out her name. I searched the library high and low for her and no signs. I then proceeded to tear apart each suite of rooms looking for her, I even tore apart my own room looking for her. I'm sure I looked like a man possessed but I couldn't help myself. My little sister wasn't here and she was supposed to be.

It wasn't fair that I'd finally get to spend time with her and she was gone. Why was she gone? Why would she leave? She knew I was coming home, I knew she had to be just as excited to see me. I felt my chest heaving from exertion. It was uncomfortable when combined with the gut wrenching feeling already taking up residence in my body.

I turned to the closest maid, "Where is Isabella?" When she didn't answer me I turned to the next and the next. I could hear my voice rising in volume. My breathing was picking up again and I know the look on my face must be one of murder.

Why was this happening all over again. I hadn't seen my little sister in almost three years and I finally get my discharge and can spend unlimited amounts of time with her and no one will tell me where she is.

"Someone get me her personal guard." When no one moved or did anything I bellowed out, "NOW!"

I watched satisfied as people started to scatter in all manner of directions. I moved with purpose towards my fathers study. I needed to be someplace that brought me peace before I cracked and wreaked havoc on the entire household. Pacing back and forth in front of the massive mahogany desk my mind went through a million scenario's but none of them would entertain the thought that Bella was dead.

I sunk down into the massive leather chair behind the desk while I waited for someone to bring me her guard. He had to have some explanation as to what happened to her. She never went anywhere without him.

Bella had to be ok, she's all I have left in this world. As I sat waiting I couldn't help but think back to the last Christmas our entire family had spent together, it was about five years ago.

_It was some grand lavish affair like it was every year. The theme that year was red and gold. Every where you turned there were twelve foot tall evergreen's with ribbons of ruby red and glittering gold, holly and mistletoe hung from every entry way. Garlands of boughs were hung from the banister leading up to the ballroom and then continued into the room and all around. The entire room smelled pleasantly of outdoors and spice. Hundreds were in attendance. Most people I couldn't tell you their name if they wore nametags. _

_Bella was a smash, of course. She looked stunning in her first ball gown, she was one of the exceptions to the red and gold theme and was wearing a floor length navy blue silk and chiffon dress, looking very much like a china doll with her porcelain skin. She had looked nothing like her 14 years of age and could have easily passed for my age of 18. That was the first year that Aro Volturi designed for her and definitely not the last. After that he became a staple in our household, like an uncle to myself and a second father to Bella for when our father was away on official business. _

_The party was finally starting to wind down around one in the morning. It was well past the normal time our parents allowed Bella to stay up but this being her first ball they made an exception. Also it was Christmas, mother and father never let the holiday pass without making it special for us no matter how busy it was or what was planned for the holiday season. _

_We all gathered around the Christmas tree that was put up in our private salon, it was on the opposite end of the palace from the ballroom and away from all the traffic of our guests, most of whom were already gone for the night. Bella and I had changed into our pajama's for the night, but mother and father stayed in their dress attire, both of us sat down around the tree and we were given our gifts. Every year our presents were limited to one each. We never had need or want for anything, but mother and father made sure to never spoil us despite having everything available at our fingertips. Most years the gift's we received were simple things, books, family heirlooms, maybe if we were lucky a rare item - a collectable of some sorts. This year mother and father decided to surprise us both. Our parents had decided to give us a family vacation. It wasn't often that we, all four of us, got to take a vacation together. _

_Bella and I were both shocked. We had never received anything like this before. Sure if we wanted to do something like this we could, but it meant so much more coming from our parents. What was even better then the vacation, was the fact that we were going to do it as a family. Between father trying to run a country and all the charity work our mother did it was rare that we spent any length of time together as a family, so to find out that they had managed to get two and half weeks away from responsibility to spend with Bella and I was a miracle. _

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of heels against the marble floors. Looking up I saw my fiancé Victoria rushing into the room. She threw her arms around me and started making these little weepy noises, almost like she was trying to cry but couldn't quite produce the tears.

"Oh honey I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. It's just such a shame that you're the only one left of your family."

I looked up at her confused. "Victoria what do you mean I'm the only one? Your making it sound like Bella is already dead. She's not! She wouldn't just leave me like that. Something else has happened but she's not dead."

"Oh of course she's not dead honey," she looked a little nervous, almost like a cornered animal, I watched her further as she started to stumble over her words. "What I mean to say is… it's a shame that you're all alone and you just got out of the military. I'm sure you would have liked to come home to family. But it's ok because I'm here for you and I'll never leave you."

"What the hell Victoria, now my sister has abandoned me?" Looking at her I tried to comprehend the words that were coming out of her mouth. She was making it out to sound like my sister had abandoned me. Was she crazy?

I watched in satisfaction as she took a step back from me shaking her head. "Of course not honey it's just I don't know what your thinking and I just want to be here for you. I don't know what your thinking and I can't read your mind. Just please tell me what your thinking and I'll be there for you no matter what."

"I wish I knew what was going on," I said shaking my head sadly. "But I refuse to think my sister is dead. I'm waiting for her personal guard to come so I can get a full report from him."

"Well that's good right? I mean, I'm sure he can tell you what's happened. Jasper honey you know that I love you right?" I nodded my head at her because of course I knew that. She still wanted to be with me even after finding out I could never take the crown legally because I was adopted as long as there was a heir connected by birth.

"I know Victoria, I know. I guess I'm just stressed out over this whole situation and it's taking longer then normal to get in touch with her guard." I stood up and opened my arms and she came to me willingly. I hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry if I snapped at you. Why don't you go do something with one of your friends while I wait here. It doesn't pay for both of us to sit here and worry needlessly."

Lifting her hand up to my lips I placed a gentle kiss on it before turning her away and giving her a little push towards the door. I know she was only trying to help, but I don't need her around making assumptions. Plus, with her around I'd be torn between worrying about her and worrying about my sister and I didn't want to be put in that position right now. Bella is always number one.

I sat back down behind the desk sinking into the chair. What was taking so long to get in touch with Emmett? He was supposed to be with her no matter where she went, maybe he was with her and when he called I'd find out she was just fine. Emmett was American, an ex navy seal, but was hired because he was top of his class at everything. If there was a fighting style he knew it. I think he loved her about as much as I did. I know he looked at her like one of his little sisters, and boy did he have a lot of them. I think he said he was the oldest of seven children and he was the only boy. I remember the day he told me that and then he cracked some joke about having to wear a tampon just to fit in. I felt myself smiling despite the grave situation I seemed to be in. If Emmett was good for one thing it was lightening up a tense situation.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I was just reaching for the phone to call my head of security when it rang. My hand hovered over the receiver, suddenly I was nervous and not so sure I wanted to know what was going on.

Swallowing hard I picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"_Jasper? This is Emmett."_

"Emmett please tell me you have some answers for me." I implored of him.

"_I do but I'm not sure your going to like it."_

My breath caught in my throat. "Look just tell me I need to know anything you know. I refuse to even entertain the worse case scenario so just tell me. Please."

"_This is all I know. I accompanied Bells home from Cambridge. The flight went fine, no problems no suspicious characters. We were back for maybe about a week when I noticed she was starting to act weird. She'd jump at loud noises and was all around skitterish. I tried asking her what was going on and she'd just laugh at off as nerves. Said she was excited to see you. Then about a month ago I was taking the night shift and as I walked down the hall towards her suite of rooms I noticed the men I had stationed outside of her room were slumped against the wall."_

He paused and I could tell he was starting to get a bit emotional. I didn't want him to continue but I needed to know everything. "Tell me everything please I need all the details."

He sighed heavily before continuing. _"I ran over to them immediately and called for back up then rushed into her room. Only she wasn't there. Her bed looked like she had slept in it for part of the night but it was empty. Also one of her bags was missing along with her passport… Jasper?"_

I could feel my eyes pricking with tears, did she runaway? "Yes Emmett what is it?"

"_It didn't look good man, there were signs of a struggle. Where ever she went I don't think she went by choice."_

I cleared my throat which was thick with unshed tears. "How long… how long ago did this happen."

"_It was just over a month ago. We tried to reach you but Victoria had assured us she had already told you."_

I stopped myself from yelling at Emmett, but could barely contain myself from flying into a bloody rage. A month! My little sister had been missing for a month and no one told me? And worse yet my loving caring fiancé was supposed to have told me but I haven't heard anything from her in almost six months. What game was she trying to play with me?

"Emmett we need to get this out. If she's out there and anyone's seen her we need to know. I know you've been trying to work behind the scenes but seeing as we haven't heard anything yet I think it's time we alert the media. I need the whole world to know she's missing. The more the better, someone was bound to have seen her. And I want you to post a reward for any information that leads to her being found." I stated matter of factly. There was nothing worth more then my baby sister and I'd be willing to pay anything to get her back home and safe with me.

"_Jasper," _Emmett started, _"I know you want her back but I'm not sure posting a reward…"_

"NO Emmett I don't care what it takes or what I have to pay I will do anything to get her back. Don't question me just do what I tell you." I know I sounded like an asshole but I couldn't help it.

I heard him sigh heavily over the phone. _"Alright you're the boss. We'll do what you want, but I want it on record that offering a reward for her return is going to create more of a problem then it's worth. You'll get every money hungry human on the planet calling with bogus information just to try and get a piece of the pie."_

I knew on a level he was probably right but I wanted her home, and home she would be. "Duly noted. IF, and it's a big if, there are any problems I will admit you're right and we'll try whatever approach you suggest."

"_Okay Jasper, I'll get in touch with PR and we'll come up with a press release for you to read over and approve. We should have something ready for you in no more than an hour." _And with that he was gone, leaving me once again to my thoughts.

I had to believe that Bella was alright. There was mention of a struggle, which I'll admit made me more nervous than I liked to admit. He also said her passport and a bag were missing, so maybe she took off before anything happened.

True to his word Emmett had a press release ready in less then an hour for me to approve. It was the normal flashing headline: Princess missing, Signs of struggle, Reward for return offered. It pained me to even have to put something like that out there about my sister but I needed her back. She is all that I have left and I refuse to go on without her.

The next couple of days went by agonizingly slow. Every hour she was gone was another hour that something could be happening to her. Everything was a blur. People came and went. Statements were taken by the police. I issued a formal statement to the press. Life was still moving on but I felt stuck in place.

The reports of Bella being spotted poured in. The detectives assigned to her case set up a tip hot line where they could take down all the information and then check to see just how much it would help us. It was a bit overwhelming, we had received just under one hundred tips on the first day and from there they grew in number.

They started out pretty normal and believable. There were many reports of people having seen her all around Europe. The most believable were the ones stating she was seen around London, it made the most sense. When all of those leads turned up dry we started to branch out a bit. We were checking almost every report of a short brunette that came into the tip line. It started to get a bit out of control. I wanted to admit to Emmett that he may have been right about offering a reward but if any one of these were responsible for her recovery I couldn't regret the decision.

When days three and four rolled around the reports started to get ridiculous. By then reports of her disappearance had reached America. We got anything and everything from seeing her shopping in L.A. to jumping on the back of a motorcycle with some hairy cyclist in Chicago. Someone even said they saw her hit by a car in New York.

On the fifth day there was a break.

Aro called. Naturally he was devastated by the news to hear Bella was missing. He expressed his sympathy for me but unlike most knew she was still alive. Apparently someone went to his NYC store and used the phrase only Bella is supposed to use when going to his stores. He let me know as soon as word got back to him. The request to get the video surveillance from the store was already put in and he was bringing it to me personally to make sure nothing happened to it.

When he finally showed up a day later we both sat down in the study to review the tapes. Aro hadn't seen the tapes yet because as soon as he received them he rushed over to me. We both sat down together and started the tape, we had to fast forward through most of the tape to get to where the person in question was in the store.

"All my NYC manager could tell me about the person who came in was that she was small, dainty and moved like she was gliding on air. Oh and apparently she was a tornado of energy, because she left the store a disaster area." He stated as we both leaned forward to see what was happening on screen.

We both watched the flurry of activity the girl on TV created. She flitted around the store pulling clothes from racks and piling them up on the counter as the sales reps tried to keep up with her. She was literally in and out of the store in under thirty minutes with six bags.

"Jesus," I breathed out. "You weren't kidding were you?"

"Jasper she walked out with close to fifteen grand in clothing." He said astounded.

Well it looks like I'll have a place to start looking for Isabella. I contacted Emmett and instructed him meet me at my personal jet. We were headed to New York City, and hopefully Isabella was still there.

******

"He's on his way."

"_We still haven't caught up to Isabella."_

"What do you mean you haven't found her yet. You lost track of her over two weeks ago."

"_We've been looking but this is large city, it's not like we can go door to door asking have you seen this girl"_

"I understand that, but I thought you said you got the license plate number!"

"_Settle down, we only were able to get the last two digits."_

"Well just find her before he gets there and get rid of her, I don't care what you have to do."

"_Well do you have his flight info, we can try and follow him?"_

"He left before I even had a chance to say goodbye all I know is he's headed your way. This would be a lot easier if you had just done the job right the first time."

* * *

**A/N: For those of you still with me. Thank you so much for being patient. I never meant to take this long with this chapter, but as I was writing it I realized that the time line is so tight with this chapter and the way it sync's up with chp 7 I had to kind of write them side by side for a bit until I was able to nail down the time line. So with that being said, good news is I have quite a bit done on chapter 7. It's going to probably turn into my longest chapter yet. Lots of info and quite a bit of fluff for our favorite couple.**

**If anyone is interested in what Bella's first ballgown, designed by the fabulous Aro Volturi, here's the link. Just remove the (dot) and spaces.**

** http : / / www (dot) net-a-porter (dot) com/product/61901**

**Thoughts and conspiracies are welcome. Just click the button below. **


	7. She Tell's The Story

**And we're back with Edward and Bella. Did you miss them? I missed them. ****Please see A/N below for info on chapter 8.**

**Thanks again to my wonderfully fabulous beta, elfinchakie, who is just outrageous. **

**I don't own Twilight, if I did I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be on set drooling over Rob shirtless in NM- funny nip and all. **

* * *

_Previously on HMSM chp 5_

_I raised an eyebrow dubiously at her. "You mean Dwyer isn't your real last name?" _

_She shook her head no and then took a deep breath straightening her back, throwing back her shoulders and raising her chin before starting. "My name is Isabella Marie Swan, Princess of Volterra."_

_My eyes must have popped out of my head and I'm pretty sure I heard her incorrectly. Did she just say she was a princess?_

_________________

"Wait, you want me to believe you're a Princess?" She nodded her head. "If you're a Princess why are you here? Why aren't you off in some palace doing what Princess's do?"

She gasped, I must have said something wrong. Then she spoke and I knew I said something bad. "And what exactly, _Edward_, is a princess supposed to do? Why don't you tell me!" She spat my name as a expletive, I don't think anyone has ever done that before.

First I make her cry and now I make her angry. Well the upside to the anger is no tears. I looked up at her properly chastised and saw her eyes glittering with tears. Well fuck my life. "I'm sorry Bella I didn't mean anything by that. I just find it hard to believe that I have a real life honest to god Princess sitting in my living room. You have to admit it's a bit surreal to find out you have royalty sitting across from you in your college sweats. Oh crap and you've been sleeping on my sofa. Why didn't you tell me? I would have given you my bed, why didn't you take it when I offered it to you?"

"I would have Edward but you had already done so much to help me I couldn't take your bed as well." I went to open my mouth and say something but she held up her finger to stop me. "No just listen," she waited for me to acknowledge so I nodded to let her know she had a captive audience. "I don't want to be treated differently. As far as you're concerned I'm just Bella. I don't need special treatment. I've already gone over this with Alice…"

"Wait Alice already knows?" I interrupted her. "How is it Alice already knows and I don't?" I'll admit I felt a bit betrayed to know my sister gotten to find out before me when Bella's been living with me for a couple of weeks already.

"She recognized me. Simple as that. Well, no, she didn't recognize me because of who I am. She knew who I was because a famous fashion designer often designs for me and we've been photographed together."

"So your not just pulling my leg when it comes to this whole princess thing? No ones going to jump out and say you've been punk'd?" she shook her head no again. "Huh." was all I could manage as I sank back into the sofa.

I honestly had no idea what to think. I had royalty, real honest to god royalty sleeping on my sofa every night. What does a person think or do in a case like this?

Oh hell and I kissed her! I practically mauled her.

Wait, didn't she said she liked it, that she wanted to kiss me as well?

She also said she doesn't want to be treated differently, I'm just not sure I can act the same towards her anymore. It's one thing to know you're on the same level as the person your interested in but another completely to know that if you ran into each other on the street she could have you arrested for even looking at her differently.

So do I just forget that she's a damn princess? Act like she never told me?

Too many questions and not enough answers. That's my problem. Okay Edward, you need to come up with some answers. Maybe I should ask my questions first before I can get some answers. I looked over at Princess Isa… I mean Bella and she was waiting patiently. Thank you lord at least she's patient and not huffing and puffing that I'm not filling every moment with talk. In fact I think she's the first woman I've met who is ok with being quiet. No endless streams of meaningless conversation.

"So you're a princess," I began, talking quietly. "Why are you here? Aren't there people looking for you?" I asked looking over at her softly.

"I'm here because there are people after me, bad people, people that are trying to kill me."

She tried to continue but I held up a finger to stop her from saying anymore. I needed to process what she just told me and if she continued to tell me her story I'm positive that my brain would implode upon itself. What the hell could she have done to warrant having people trying to kill her? Now I just have more questions, and no idea of where to begin.

"Bella why don't you start from the beginning and tell me everything." I said looking her squarely in the eyes, watching as some mysterious emotion passed behind them. I had never seen this emotion from her before.

"The beginning, right. Well I guess… I guess it started when I got home from school." I watched her carefully as she started to fidget nervously and her hands started to shake.

******

I had to take a deep breath to calm my nerves before telling Edward everything that had happened to me. It had started merely days after I had arrived at my families, or I guess my country estate. I had almost lost my horse Austen, named after Jane Austen during that first attack. Satisfied that I was calm enough to talk I started to share my story with him.

"I guess really the first clue that something was off was when I was taking my horse, Austen, for a run. It had been months since I had been able to ride him and I wanted to take him out to stretch his legs. I was just making the return trip when I heard a gun shot. I immediately pulled back on the reins when a branch from a tree fell right in front of me. At the time I just thought It was a hunter who missed his shot." Just talking about it again was starting to make me shake. I needed to get myself under control if I was going to tell him everything.

"The second one happened the next day. I had decided to take a walk and take in the fall colors. I took my time walking down the road leading towards the house. It was just a quiet fall day and I hadn't seen a car on the road during the entire walk, well I suppose I wouldn't since mine was the only house on the road. Out of no where this car came barreling towards me. At first I thought it was one of our cars that security drove but when it didn't swerve to try and avoid me I knew better. I jumped out of the way and just barely missed getting hit. I ran as fast as I could back to the house."

I watched him carefully after I told him about the car practically running me down and he let a soft "holy shit," slip out from his lips. I know the story sounds a bit out there, and if it hadn't actually happened to me I never would have believed it myself. I waited a bit for him to let me know it was ok to continue. Really I didn't want to tell him what happened next because it was the action that forced me from my family home, from my country and ultimately made me lose trust in the people who have protected me for years.

I continued on to tell him that third attempt happened late that same night. I wasn't sleeping well because I was all hyped up over what had happened early. Emmett had noticed and asked me what was wrong and I just wrote it off as nerves, told him I was excited to see Jasper again. He gave me a funny look but let it go. Honestly because the car that ran me down looked so much like one of our cars I wasn't sure I could trust him enough to tell him what happened. It killed me but I couldn't say anything. I may be young and naive at times but I'm always paranoid. You need to be when you live like I do. When I heard something outside my door I got up from bed and ran to the door. I cracked it open just enough to be able to see the guards outside my door fighting with two others. I instantly went on alert. There was something off about the whole situation. I ran quietly to my closet and quickly packed a few things grabbed my passport and what I hoped was enough money to get me away.

Our country home had been in the family for close to a century and the person who had originally built it was slightly paranoid, it had hidden passages all over the place. One of those happened to be in my closet, Jasper and I had spent hours exploring where they all lead despite mother and father telling us not to. It was one of the few times we had directly disobeyed what they told us to do and at that moment I was thankful for it.

It took just a minute for me to remember just how to get through them. During all of our exploring we had found out that there was a way to get out of the house via the passage ways. It didn't lead to the most desirable place but I had a feeling landing in the swampy marsh behind the house was better then what was waiting for me in my room.

Pausing I looked up at Edward to see if he had anything to say or any questions to ask. When he just sat there staring at me I decided it was probably best to just continue and get on with my story. The faster the better, like puling off a band aid.

I quickly shut hidden door just as the entry door to my closet burst open. I did however managed to get a clear look at the two people who came into my room.

I was right.

They were on our security team. I wasn't wrong about the car that had tried to run me off the road. These were people I trusted with my life, my brother trusted them, my family trusted them for years. When I realized what was going on I almost had a panic attack but had to force myself to keep moving.

What about Emmett?

He had been with me the longest, I never went anywhere without him. After Jasper left for the military Emmett became my surrogate brother. He took me under his wing and treated me like a normal human being. But thinking back it did seem odd that he hadn't come on my walk with me or offered to take Austen out with me as well. Some days I had a hard enough time trying to go to the ladies room on my own. Emmett was the reason I couldn't live in the dorms at Cambridge because he said he wouldn't let me live some place he didn't have access to as well.

With the thought that maybe Emmett could some how be involved I broke down. I cried. I let it all out. I didn't know who I could trust. I didn't know if anyone was worth trusting anymore. I was alone now. My body was shaking and I felt horrible for crying in front of Edward but I had held everything in for so long. When I felt two strong arms wrap around me I did the only thing I could, I cried harder.

******

I couldn't believe the story that Bella had just told me. The people who were hired to protect her were trying to kill her. I suppose being as sheltered as she's been she wouldn't really know who to turn to, who could help her. She had said that she couldn't trust anyone at home. Wasn't sure if she'd be speaking with someone who could help her or who would come after her. The part she hated the most was she wasn't even sure if she could turn to the person who had been with her for the past four years, the person who had been like a second brother to her, she said his name was Emmett. She had started to cry in earnest at this point, so I did the only thing I could think of. I wrapped my arms around her tightly while she cried. At this moment she seemed so small and vulnerable as she cried out her worries and fears.

She settled in closer to me practically sitting on my lap. Her tears were soaking through the shoulder of my shirt but I didn't notice or care. The only thing that mattered at this point was that Bella was safe in my arms. After everything she told me I just felt relieved to have her in my arms at this moment. I tightened them around her involuntarily at that thought, it was ridiculous but I never wanted to let her go. In my brain I knew if I could just keep her wrapped in my arms she'd always be safe, I knew it was crazy but I couldn't help it.

It was hours, or maybe minutes, I wasn't sure but she finally started to calm down. Her crying stopped slowly and she was gradually getting her breathing under control. When she didn't make any move to push away from me or get off of me I took that as a sign to keep holding her. I was gently rocking her back and forth when I felt her body sag heavily against mine and realized she must have fallen asleep. Carefully I stood up with her still cradled in my arms and carried her gently towards my bedroom. I'd deal with the aftermath of her waking up in my bed later, right now she needed the comfort of a warm safe bed.

I laid her gently on the bed after pulling the covers back and was just starting to pull away when her hand wrapped around my shirt tighter. I was stuck awkwardly half bent over the bed, I subtly tried to release her fingers from my shirt and she gripped on tighter still. Apparently she was much stronger then she looked. Just when I was starting to wonder what I was supposed to do she suddenly let go and rolled over. I breathed a sigh of relief and finished tucking her in and then started to move around in the dark room to gather some things so I could change for bed.

Satisfied that I had what I needed I went out to the living room to make myself comfortable for the night. I fell asleep exhausted. It was already a long day and all I really wanted to do was come home and have dinner and spend the evening with Bella. Instead I had a bomb dropped on my lap when I got home.

It wasn't all bad though. There was the kiss. Even if it ended with her in tears at least they weren't tears I caused by kissing her. That was a blow to my ego. How many guys can say when they kissed a girl they made her cry, probably just that guy in that nursery rhyme.

I woke up with a start sometime in the middle of the night. I could hear something strange coming from my bedroom so I slowly made my way down towards the closed door. I listened outside the door for a couple seconds to make sure that no one else was in there and when the noise died down I opened the door slowly. Sighing in relief I saw it was only Bella in my bed and she appeared to be sleeping soundly.

Then I heard a sound that tipped my world upside down. She whispered my name. For a moment I thought she woke up but when I looked at her closer she was definitely asleep. Did that mean she was dreaming about me?

"Edward," she yelled out sitting straight up in bed. She looked all around the room probably wondering where she was when her eyes settled on me. "Oh Edward!" She started to sob and I was instantly at her side on the bed, wrapping my arms tight around her.

******

I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. I was having a horrible, awful dream.

In my dreams I was being chased again only the harder I tried to run the heavier my feet felt. I was frantically trying to move only I couldn't get away. I looked behind me again only this time instead of seeing faceless attackers it was Edward. I knew I could stop running then. I sighed his name in relief and he smiled at me. I looked around trying to decipher were I was in my dream and when I looked back at him, suddenly both of Them were behind him. I screamed his name only he couldn't hear me. I tried to turn towards him but I was back to not moving and suddenly one of Them pulled out a knife.

I sat up in bed quickly and my eyes swept all across the dark room I was in and I saw Edward standing by the door. I couldn't stop the sob that came out of me. I was so thankful to find out it was a dream. That he was safe and he was here and suddenly his arms were wrapped around me holding me tightly to him.

"P-pl-please don't leave me," I managed to get out between sobs.

He just held me tighter to him and whispered unknown words against the top of my head and softly ran his fingers through my hair. He started to get up out of the bed and I panicked clinging to him tighter.

"Shhh," he whispered. "I'm not going anywhere, let me just pick up the blankets off the floor."

I nodded and watched him closely as he did exactly as he said and he got into bed and held his arms out to me. I crawled over to him and laid down against his chest and his strong arms wrapped around me again.

That night I slept peacefully. I finally felt secure and safe in his arms.

When I woke up his arm was still wrapped around me only he was spooning me from behind and I noticed his hand was splayed out across my stomach with his fingers under the material of my sleep pants. I couldn't stop the blush from spreading when I realized how close his fingers were to touching me.

I had never had a man's hand anywhere near there. Between my brother and Emmett I think I would have had a better chance at getting some action if I had joined a convent. As it was I don't think I should let Edward wake up to discover where his hand had wandered to while he slept, so I tried to wiggle out from his grip. His arm wrapped around me tighter and he pulled me back towards him and hummed quietly in his sleep. It was almost sweet until I felt something firm against my backside.

Was that? Did he have? Oh my god!

I blushed an even deeper shade of red and was thankful he wasn't awake yet. I was uncomfortably hot from all the blushing and his body pressed tightly against me, and oh my, he started to move his thumb back and forth across the skin of my stomach leaving a trail of fire in it's wake. Before I knew it he had started to move his hips against me and I started to move back against him.

He moaned rather loudly and I jumped out of bed suddenly and quickly looked over at him and saw his eyes still closed and it looked like he was still sleeping. I was too hot, this room was too hot. God I felt like I was on fire. I ran out of the bedroom like the hounds of hell were after me and into the kitchen to get a glass of ice water and try to get my breathing under control.

That had to be one hottest most sensual things I had ever felt and for all I knew he was probably dreaming about someone else. Now I was just mortified.

Thank god for small miracles though that he didn't wake up when I ran from the bed. When he woke up about a half our later I had managed to compose myself and busied myself with reading yesterdays paper.

We danced around each other for the rest of the morning. Neither one of us able to look the other in the eye. When I realized it was Friday I asked him why he didn't go into work today and he grumbled out some muffled reply that sounded an awful lot like torture is not bonding and he didn't want me home alone. Personally I thought that was ridiculous. I had survived so far on my own while he was at work what was a couple more hours?

I started to read one of the new books he had got for me and he disappeared behind his office door. I noticed that he kept a large drafting table in there, so I assumed he must be working from home since he wasn't going to be in the office.

It was a little after noon when I saw him walk out of his office and I was about half way through the book I was reading. I watched him walk in and out of the living room, sometimes he'd walk in about two steps and turn right around, other times he'd walk all the way and stop in front of me tug on his hair and walk right back out. It was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen. Finally he sat down in a chair across from me and when he spoke he startled me.

******

"I want to take you out," I said suddenly.

She jumped then looked over at me and raised one eyebrow up in question of my completely random statement, as if asking me to elaborate.

"I want to take you out to dinner, just the two of us." I began. "I want to get out of this apartment for just one night, and then I want to show you Rockefeller Center so you can see the Christmas tree all lit up. We'll only go to low key places and the majority of the time we'll have jackets and scarves on so I doubt anyone will really notice or recognize you. I just want to take you out just you and me and a nice dinner. You've been here for weeks and I just feel like you should really get to experience New York." I finished on my last bit of breath trying to push it all out before I lost my nerve.

I watched her closely for her response and nervous as hell for her answer. I knew it was a long shot and she didn't really want to leave the building for fear of being seen but I was going stir crazy. I wanted to show her the city but with the view from my place all she's really seen has been the street below and the buildings next door. I watched her eyes shift though nervousness, curiosity, and then wonderment. And then she blushed and I had to wonder what she was blushing about. I don't think I had said anything to cause that beautiful flush in her cheeks but she was surprising me more and more every day so who knows.

"Like a date?" she asked me shyly.

My brain went blank. Was this a date? Did I just ask her out on a date? I think I just asked her out on a date. Shit! Did she not want to go on a date with me? What so I say, yes Bella go out on a date with me, or should I just deny it? But hell I wanted to go out on a date with her. I wanted people to see us out together and get jealous that she's out with me.

"Yes a date." I tried not to look hopeful but I know my face betrayed me. I kept my eyes trained on her face.

She looked up at me all bashful and cute and her cheeks were tinged a wonderful shade of pink. "Yes."

"Yes? You'll go out with me?" I asked stunned.

She nodded slowly, "But I don't have anything to wear."

"Oh that's no problem. Alice has already informed me that I am apparently going shopping with her today." I let her know. "I'm sure she can pick something out for you." In fact I knew Alice was going to go nuts with the prospect of getting to shop for Bella. She went crazy at the thought of shopping for anyone, but with Bella she was getting to work with a clean slate.

"Okay, yes I'll go out with you." she clarified even further for me.

I could feel my lips spread into one of those obnoxious grins, but I couldn't help it. She had agreed to go out with me. I felt like doing a dance but instead I walked over to her and scooped her up in my arms giving her a soft kiss on her lips. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she kissed me back. I held her small body close to mine while we kissed, keeping it soft and sweet but with an underlying spark of burning need.

I broke away from her after a moment or two. "I need to go take a shower and then meet Alice. Do you want to come with us?"

She shook her head no. "No it's ok Edward you need to spend time with Alice."

******

Edward let me know he was going shopping with Alice. I really couldn't bare having them spend money on me when it wasn't needed so I asked Edward to show me Alice's place before they left. As long as they were going out it just made more sense for them to just go to one of the Volutri stores. I can walk into any of his Italian stores and get whatever I want but if I'm ever traveling where people might not immediately recognize me he developed kind of a password, all I have to do is mention that word or phrase and I would be immediately recognized as VIP.

When we got to her place I explained all this to her and told her the phrase. "Now when you get there just say 'L'amore domina senza regole.' Any of his stores regardless of country or continent are to recognize that statement immediately, so you should have no problems getting what you need."

She repeated it slowly to herself. "What does that mean?" She asked me curiously.

"It means, love rules without rules, something that means quite a bit to Aro, and something he's imparted upon me since he first met me. He hasn't always led the most conventional lifestyle. Do you want me to write it down for you?" I asked before I delved too deeply into his private life.

When she said yes I quickly wrote it down for her and she pocketed it before gathering her things to get ready for her shopping trip with Edward. "Edward I'll just meet you down in the lobby if want to walk Bella back up to your place."

We both smiled at her and he subtly slid his hand into mine holding it gently as we made our way up to his place. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" He asked in the elevator.

"No that's ok you haven't had much time with Alice lately and I feel kind of bad for causing that. I know how important it is to have time with your siblings. Besides I have tons to read while your gone. Maybe I could meet Rosalie when you get back?" I asked shyly, it had only been a day or so since meeting Alice but I was still anxious to meet his other sister.

"Sure when we get back I'll give Rose a call and see if she'd like to come up. Although I should probably let her know to expect you, do you want me to tell her about you or would you rather do that?"

I wasn't sure about that. I didn't really know if she was likely to believe her brother more or if she'd rather hear it straight from the source. "Why don't you decide. I don't know your sister, I'm sure you know what way she'd rather get the news."

He smiled at me sweetly and led me off the elevator back to his place. "You have my number right? You can call me if you have any questions or if anything happens. We should only be gone for a couple of hours."

I turned to face him once we got to the front door and couldn't help the small laugh that escaped. "I'll be fine you know. I lasted this long at your place without being found I doubt a couple of hours will make a difference." He started to scowl at me and I reached up to rub the little V that started to form between his eyes when he did. "Edward I will be okay. I have your number and if anything happens or I have any questions I'll call you. Just don't worry about me while your supposed to be out with your sister."

He nodded at me and leaned towards me to unlock the door and let me in. "Please lock the door when I leave."

"Of course," I said, "now go enjoy your night out with Alice I'm sure she's wondering what's taking you so long."

I watched one side of his mouth lift up into a little smirk as he leaned in close to me so his lips just barely brushed against my ear. "Oh I'm sure she's not wondering. In fact I'm willing to bet she has a pretty good idea what's taking me so long." He whispered softly.

Exhaling softly I leaned up against him so I could whisper back to him. "And what is she thinking? I mean what is taking you so long?" I asked breathlessly and felt him shiver.

He cocked his head to the side so he could look me in the eyes and I stared back lost in the green depths. Taking a step closer to me with one hand still on the door knob his other hand came up to rest on the side of my neck his palm flat against my neck and his fingers splayed out against my cheek, his thumb resting just below my bottom lip. I was effectively pressed up against the hard planes of his body and the solid door behind me. Tilting my head up to meet his put my lips just centimeters from him as he held my gaze steadily while slowly moving in closer to my lips.

"This," he whispered against my lips. "This is what's taking me so long." And with that his lips crashed down against mine. I had to stop the involuntary moan that started in the back of my throat and threatened to break free of my lips. Reaching up on my tip toes I wrapped both arms around his neck in my effort to get closer to him and still he backed me up until there was absolutely no room between the door and his body. He must have let go of the door knob because next thing I knew I felt his fingers sliding down my body until he gripped my hip tightly in his hand. That time I couldn't help the moan as it slid unsolicited from between my lips and he took that as his opening to tentatively slide his tongue past my lips.

It was virtually impossible but I pressed my body to his even tighter in my quest to feel all of him. He was in a wool pea coat but I could still feel the heat between us. I moved one hand from around his neck up into his hair and grabbed a handful anchoring his lips to mine while my other hand ran down the front of his body. When it reached the bottom of his coat I wormed my hand under the layers of clothing until I could feel the warm heat of flesh against flesh. Suddenly his hand moved back from my hip and pressed against the small of my back. My body strained even closer to his and I could feel the evidence of his need against my stomach, it made my body throb with want and I felt liquid heat run through my veins.

I suddenly I wanted more.

I wanted everything.

I hitched my leg up around him and his hands slid down to grab my bottom and he lifted me up and… OH! There was friction and pressure in all the right places. I locked my ankles behind his back. I moaned loudly at the new sensations and could feel his answering groan vibrate through his chest that was pressed against mine. Both of his hands were squeezing and kneading my ass as my body moved up and down against his. I didn't want move from this spot but I needed more. My hands started to push the coat off his shoulders and it dropped down his arms hanging at his elbows. He either was too absorbed in me to realize I was trying to strip him or he didn't want to let go long enough to take it off. I secretly hoped it was a bit of both.

I was vaguely aware of a sound coming from somewhere near us but couldn't find it in myself to care. I just wanted to feel more, taste more, touch more. I felt his hips buck and the pressure got tighter, more intense. I couldn't control my moans any more. I was dangerously close to making a fool out of myself in the common hall of Edwards apartment building but as long as he was pressed up against me I couldn't find it in myself to care. I gasped as the sensation started to become too much and tore my lips away from his. My breathing was out of control but I couldn't focus on it long enough to settle it. All of my concentration was on the wonderful man who had me pressed up against his door with my legs wrapped around him. When my lips left his, he moved down to my neck and I felt him sucking softly at the skin just behind it.

Without his lips pressed to mine my moans got ridiculously loud. He needed to stop or open up his door and take me inside. Then I felt his breath against the shell of my ear and goose bumps ran up and down the length of body. I head another sound coming from closer to us and just as I was going to look over he started to say something and my mind went blank.

"God Bella," he whispered, "your taste… and your smell… and fuck the sounds."

I moaned even louder at the sound of his voice. He was panting almost as hard as I was and it had a deep gravelly sound to it. "Please Edward." I panted out and his lips went back to working my neck and setting my body on fire.

He reached down and started to push open his door.

"OH you have to be kidding me! What are you two a couple of horny fourteen year olds? Do you know I've been waiting downstairs for like ever." Alice practically yelled from right next to us.

I squeaked in embarrassment and Edward groaned and let his forehead drop down against my shoulder in defeat. I can't believe Alice just caught me making out with her brother. I was mortified.

"Edward," I whispered frantically. "Can you let me down." I was desperately trying to wiggle my way out of his strong hold, if nothing more then for propriety's sake. He may not be embarrassed by being caught by his sister but I definitely was. Finally I felt his grip on my bottom loosen and I slid down to the floor, but he kept his arms wrapped around me still so I was still trapped against him.

"Alice can you please just give us a minute." he ground out. "I promise I'll be right behind you. I just need a minute or two." She huffed obviously not believing him but still turned around to head back towards the elevators.

"Figlio di puttana! Non posso credi quello la vostra sorella appena interferito noi baiare."** I realized I had started to talk in Italian and he was staring at me like I was speaking some dead language and then he started to laugh at me.

"Did you just call me the son of a whore?" He asked in amusment.

"Not exactly." I said softly looking down. I couldn't believe he understood any of what I said. "This is so embarrassing Edward. Your sister just caught us in a very compromising position in the hallway of all places! How can you just stand there smiling at me like it's no big thing?"

He tilted my face up to his so he was looking me in the eyes. "Bella are you embarrassed? Because I'm not." I shot him a small smile. "There is nothing embarrassing about the way I feel for you or the way you make me feel. Was the hallway the best place to practically dry hump you? Probably not. Would I do it again? You bet your sweet firm ass I would." He reached down to grab said ass and I gasped when he practically palmed one cheek with his hand.

"I… umm… Merda*." I lost track of my thoughts when he started to kneed my bottom. "Edward… Alice is waiting." He released me and took a step back at the reminder of Alice. I was barely holding it together and when I looked over at him less then two feet in front of me I almost flung myself at him again before begging him not to leave. The look of pure undiluted lust in his eyes was making my knees go week and I had to lean against the door. I watched him lick his lips and he started to take a step closer to me.

"EDWARD! For fucks sake let's go before I die and turn to dust." I heard Alice yell and I giggled.

"You better go Edward before she decides to get even." I felt almost sorry for him. He looked so frustrated and I knew part of that was my fault. At my mention of Alice getting even he straightened up and took two steps back from me.

"I'm coming Alice just hold on." he yelled back at her, then he turned and looked over at me. "Bella please go inside and lock the door before Alice attempts to drag me away from you. Because I swear I'm about ten seconds away from locking us both behind that door, but knowing Alice she would get her revenge and it would be worse than an afternoon shopping trip.

I giggled at him and he shot me a look that made me want to laugh harder but instead I bit my bottom lip to stop from laughing at him. "Ok, I'll go inside and safely barricade myself from you." I took a step towards him just wanting to give him a kiss on the cheek before he left but he took a panicked step back and his back collided with the wall on the other side of the hall. Once again I had to stop myself from laughing and bit harshly on my lip.

"Jesus Bella," he sighed loudly. "If you value my sanity, please, please, please stop biting your lip." He closed his eyes tightly.

"Bella for the love of all that is good and holy will you please go into his apartment and shut the door. I love you like a sister but I will not hesitate to beat you if I don't get to go shopping for you today." Alice was starting to sound exasperated with the whole situation. So taking pity on both of them I turned around and opened this apartment door and stepped in and closed the door behind me and the turned the dead bolt.

"Safe as houses Edward." I yelled from the other side of the door. Even with the solid wood door between us I could hear his harsh exhale and giggled as I made my way towards my half finished book to read while they went shopping.

_________________

**Son of a whore! I can not believe your sister just caught us kissing.

*Shit

* * *

**A/N: Awww, sweet, sweet Edward. Poor boy is up then down then up again. Literally. Who wouldn't mind snuggling up to some Morning Woodward? **

**--Next chapter is in the hands of you, my dear sweet readers. Here's your choice. I could give you Edward and Bella's date, I've actually already done a surprising amount of research into their date. OR. I can get right along with the plot and do their date as an outtake or one shot at a later time. It's up to you. If you choose for me to continue the plot it will pick up at the end of their date. So please let me know via review or PM.**

**Also if you'd like to see the reason this was late in posting it's a o/s that you can find in my profile called Sometime Around Midnight. It's Jasper, and I call him Sad Sack Jasper. It's all kinds of angsty heart break but has one of my most lovingly sweet lemons in it. **

**Merry Christmas to you all, as I am Catholic (can you tell from the lemons?), and Happy Hanukkah, or any other happy or merry you might be taking part in this year!**

**I wish I could give you all a little RPattz under your tree for Christmas. **


	8. Date Night

**Thank you to my awesomesauce beta elfinchakie. **

**I don't own the characters they belong to Mrs. Meyer. **

**If you're not made at me for the long time it took me to post this I have an A/N at the end for you.**

.

* * *

*

I couldn't believe I was this nervous. It felt like this was my first date. Which was ridiculous. I've been on dates before, I've even asked plenty of women on dates. Yet this slip of a girl has me nervous. Except she's not a girl, no she's very much a woman. One who has been living with me for the past couple of weeks but for some reason my sister thinks she needs to get ready at her place and I need to come pick her up like it's a proper date. I scoffed at her and told her she was being silly. There was absolutely no reason why she couldn't help her get ready here. In fact she wouldn't even let me see the dress she had picked out for Bella to wear on our date. She told me it was bad luck. I called her crazy and told her I wasn't getting married to her so that made no sense what-so-ever.

Why was I so damn nervous? I looked at the clock again. Alice said to be at her place at 7 o'clock sharp. It was 6:50. Ten minutes. Well no eight minutes if you count the time involved for the elevator ride. So I paced, except I was walking so fast it was more like sprinting. My cell started to ring in my pocket and I pulled it out. It was Alice. Why was Alice calling me?

"Edward stop your damn pacing and if you keep it up your going to start sweating and then you'll have to change your shirt and then you'll be late." She managed to spit that all out in one breath, not even giving me a chance to say hello before she hung up.

That's it, I thought, I'm requesting a paternity test or something. How can we be related?

I looked up at the clock again 6:57. I grabbed my black pea coat, double checked for my wallet, keys, scarf and gloves. Finishing my mental check list I locked my front door and glanced at my watch. Still 6:57, I made myself walk slowly down to the elevator, I pressed the button in slow motion. It seemed like it took forever for the elevator to finally reach my floor. I cursed myself for living on the fifteenth floor. Then I waited in the elevator for way to long to go back down to the twelfth floor. I should have just taken the stairs. It would have been faster.

The elevator chimed and I got off then looked at my watch again. 6:59. One more minute. Damnit why couldn't Alice live down the hall? Now I have to stand outside my sisters apartment for a full minute looking like a fool before I can knock. I dare not knock a minute earlier though, I shuddered at the thought of what kind of punishment Alice would have cooked up for me.

I couldn't wait any longer so with a fair amount of impatience I knocked loudly on Alice's door. I heard a loud shuffle from the other side of the door and worried for a moment that something might be wrong. Then there was a loud thump and I heard Alice yell something I incomprehensible. My fear got the best of me and I was just reaching for Alice's spare key when the door was opened and there Bella was in front of me, a vision in a purple dress. She took my breath away.

"Bella," I smiled a her.

I took my time looking her up and down, not nearly as concerned as I should be with the fact that I was openly gawking at her. With her hair up in a simple twist it was hard to think I had never believed she was a princess, she had a timeless elegance to her. She had hardly any make up on, just barely enough to subtly highlight her delicate features. I recognized the earrings she had on, they were my sisters, and she had gotten them from our mother. They dangled slightly and helped highlight her soft slender neck, I had to fist my hands at my sides to stop from reaching out and running my fingers over the smooth flesh. As my eyes traveled further down her body I noticed she had on a delicate necklace with a pendant in the shape of a swan and found that fitting considering her surname. Really though it was the dress she was wearing. It was in no way revealing since it had a rather high neckline and came down to just below her knees. But her innocence in the dress combined with the hungry way her gaze was moving over my own form made me wish this was the end of our date and I was brining her home, to our, er… my apartment for the evening.

******

As the minutes ticked by my patience with Alice was getting thinner, and thinner. First she steals me from Edwards at noon to get read for our date that was about seven hours away. I really wanted to take offense to this. Why she thought I needed seven hours to get ready I didn't know. I knew I was pretty, I'm not full of myself in that way though because I know I'm not a head turner. But for Alice to suggest I would need seven hours to get ready had me bristling. When she noticed the look on my face she pursed her lips and shook her head at me. It shut me right up and any complaint I was going to make died on my lips.

Especially when she explained why she was stealing me away from Edward.

"Bella," she started, " you've been on your own for over a month. I know you've been living in conditions less then what your used to." When I made to interrupt her about living with her brother she just shook her head again, and I closed my mouth, again. "I know living with Edward hasn't been a hardship. I just thought we could have a bit of a girls day. We can scrub and polish until we are squeaky clean. You can't tell me you aren't used to weekly trips to the spa?" When I flushed in embarrassment she continued. "I thought so. So I just thought you might be due, and what better way then a girls spa day."

With her speech out of the way I conceded to her point. Her sister Rose, who I had finally gotten to meet came over and we scrubbed and polished until we all glowed. At first I wasn't really sure what to think of Rose. She was definitely beautiful, there was no doubt about it. I was glad that after explaining the situation she did eventually start to warm up to me. The last thing I wanted was for one of Edward's sisters to not like me.

Alice had picked out a fabulous purple dress for me. It wasn't lost on me that purple is a royal color and I'm sure it was a conscious decision on her part. When she pulled out the swan necklace I almost lost it. My eyes began to water up and it took a lot of brow beating from her about having to re-do my make-up. Alice really was quite formidable despite her tiny stature. When I had settled down I explained to her that it was a design based off of my family crest. I had a platinum and diamond one back home that Aro had designed specifically for me for my 18th birthday.

Alice lent me a pair of her own earrings to wear. She said they were a gift from her mother on her 18th birthday as well. Her mother had received them from her mother. They were a gorgeous pair of white gold and diamond drop earrings. I told her they were too much, but she insisted that if I couldn't have something of my families with me that I should have something of hers since she already thought of me as family. I almost started to cry again at that point but she hushed me up again with another stern reminder of my make-up.

Some how she had managed to get all of my hair into an elegant twist with side swiped bangs. I had never managed to get all of my hair up like that on my own. It always took a crew of professionals to do that for me usually. It was part of the curse of having long and thick hair.

It was close to seven when Alice began to mumble something about sweating and changing shirts. Before I knew it she was on her phone calling Edward and hanging up just as quickly.

I took a second look at the clock. Less then ten minutes and he would be here. Suddenly I was very nervous, for both the date and because I was going to be out among people I didn't know and couldn't trust. Any one of them could recognize me. I trusted Edward though. He wouldn't take me someplace if he didn't think I was safe and he could protect me. Plus he had a point it was early December, we would be bundled up quite a bit to stay warm.

I began pacing in front of the door with only a couple of minutes before Edward was supposed to pick me up. Alice kept giving me dirty looks and telling me a lady never answers the door for her date, or at the very least makes him wait after showing him in. I refrained from showing her a very un-lady like gesture. I'm sure my mother would have had something to say about my behavior right now, but I couldn't help it. I haven't seen Edward in almost seven hours.

It was always hard when he had to go to work, and he was usually gone for much longer but at least I was surrounded by him in his apartment. At Alice's there was nothing to remind me of him besides a couple of family photos. I missed all of the crazy books he had bought me, I missed his huge leather sofa's, but most of all I missed having his scent all around me. His place smelled like him, it was purely masculine but clean with a hint of citrus.

There was a knock at the door and we both scrambled to answer it. Alice tired to elbow me out of the way so she could get there before me and make Edward wait. What she didn't know, was that by making him wait she was making me wait. And that was simply unacceptable. So with a well placed hip check I managed to get her out of the way. I felt kind of bad that she practically flew down the hallway and landed on her butt, and I might have apologized except I was opening the door and there stood Edward.

I was pretty sure I might have gasped out loud but couldn't be certain since I was too busy staring to take note of my lack of mental capabilities. He was wearing a gray suit that fit him to perfection. He had skipped out on the tie and left the top two buttons of his white shirt unbuttoned. He swallowed and I was transfixed watching his Adam's apple bob up and down. I had the sudden urge to step closer to him and press my lips against it softly.

The steel gray of the suit was perfectly ordinary but did marvelous things for his other features. His green eyes popped and looked like liquid pools of jade. His hair, which I had affectionately began referring to as rumbled, looked more so then usual. Where I had spent the last how many hours primping, it looked like he had spent them all trying to pull his hair out.

Then he smiled a me and I felt my face flush.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

I merely nodded and smiled at him ready to go anywhere he wanted to lead me. In fact I probably would have walked right of the door dressed how I was if it wasn't for Alice's loud sigh when she realized I was trapped in her brothers gaze. She grabbed a winter dress coat for me to wear and handed it to Edward. I was at first puzzled as to why she would do this before Edward held it open for me expectantly, then I realized it was so he could help me put it on. It had been such a long time since any man had helped me with my coat I almost blushed at the act.

Alice then handed me a cream colored cashmere scarf and quickly bid us a good night and told us not to do anything she wouldn't do before giving a very obvious wink to both of us. I wanted to perish of embarrassment simply at the reminder of what she had caught us doing days earlier.

Edward never let what happened in the hallway deter him though. Initially when he tried to kiss me again after being caught by Alice I shied away a bit, the mortification still fresh in my mind. But that man can be damn persuasive when he puts his mind to it.

The dynamic to our relationship changed after that. We were both more affectionate with each other and perhaps a bit more hands on with our affection. We kissed like two teenagers for hours, the night he went shopping with Alice. When he returned home he practically ran through the door to me. His hands slipped to places on my body that no mans hand had ever been before, when I'd gasp in surprise from the foreign feeling of his fingers exploring my body he would immediately dial back. At first I was happy that he was so respectful of my body and my limits, but the more we explored with each other the more I wished he'd push just a bit more, explore just a bit more, touch just a bit more.

Before I realized it we were at his car and he was helping me into the passenger side. I watched him practically run to the drivers side. He held my hand the entire ride to the restaurant, if he needed to shift gears he'd do it while still holding my hand. Everything he did just made me fall for him a little bit more.

For dinner he took me to a small place called Amalia, he explained they had different themed rooms but had gotten us a table in the portrait gallery. The entire ceiling was covered in reproductions of priceless pieces of artwork. Dinner was excellent, I would have expected nothing less from Edward.

After he wanted to take me to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and I had to admit I was extremely excited to see it. I had heard about it, and seen pictures of it but never thought I'd get to actually see it. We walked the couple of blocks to Rockefeller and I was captivated by all of the Christmas lights everywhere. New York City definitely went all out when it came to the holiday, that's for sure.

******

Watching her eyes light up in wonder as we walked through the streets made the cold bearable. It also helped having her hand in mine. It was such a juvenile thing to get pleasure out of, holding her hand, but I loved every chance I got to touch her. Also holding her hand gave me the chance to stake my claim to her. She may not have noticed, but every man who passed us pulled a double take to look at her.

We walked up to the skating rink below the tree and I watched her looking at everything. Her cheeks were tinged a slight pink from the cold and she had her scarf wrapped around her neck and pushed higher up covering her ears. Her eyes glittering with excitement. I gasped in a soft breath at the sight, she literally took my breath away. Without thought I pulled her closer to me slipping my arm around her waist and she turned towards me wrapping her arms around me.

I looked down at her in my arms and she looked up at me at the same time. The moment was beyond perfect as I leaned down to kiss her. Our lips met softly at first, just a gentle brush back and forth. I slid my hands down to her waist turning her to fully face me. I could feel her straining to reach up to me, even with her heels on she was still quite a bit shorter then I, so I stooped down to get closer to her.

Despite the cold surrounding us my lips felt like they were on fire. Her arms wrapped around my neck and I had mine securely around her small waist holding her tightly to me. Then I got the shock of my life when I felt her tongue swipe my bottom lip and I moaned softly at the contact of her initiating something deeper. We had spent countless hours kissing but it was always me who had to make the first move. To know that she was growing so much more confident in the physical aspects of our relationship made my heart soar. Ultimately I would always wait for her but it felt nice knowing that maybe she wanted this as bad as I did.

I left one arm wrapped around her and brought my other hand up to her face cupping her face gently as our tongues moved together. I felt her molding her body closer to mine and heard her little whimper when she couldn't get close enough because of all our winter clothing.

I pulled back from her lips slowly and chuckled. I smoothed my thumb back and forth softly across her cheek waiting for her to open her eyes and look at me. When she did I sucked in a shaky breath at the glimpse of lust I saw in her chocolate pools.

"Are you ready to call it a night?" I asked her softly.

She nodded softly before speaking. "Yes Edward, take me home. Please."

I closed my eyes tightly when she uttered that phrase. There was no way she could have known what she was saying, what those words did to me. If there was one thing I had come to learn about Bella was that she was incredibly innocent, she even admitted to me that she grew up very sheltered. Well on one hand I was grateful that I had captured so many first for her it was also maddening to my self-control to have to pull back all of the time, but she was definitely worth it.

We walked back to my car quickly this time I had left my arm wrapped around her with her cuddled next to me. Now that we were no longer kissing the cold had hit us full force. I quickly hit the button on the key fob for my Audi and helped her in before making my way over to the drivers side. I turned on the car and gave it enough time to warm up before pulling away and doing my best to maneuver through traffic and get us home quickly.

I could feel her eyes on me and every now and then I'd glance over to see her biting her lip and it took everything I had in me to not lean over and kiss her some more.

"C'mere." I said as we came to a red light and I leaned over closer to her.

She leaned up closer to me and we shared a quick yet passionate kiss, our tongues moving against each other. This time with more urgency then before. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw the light turn green and broke away with regret and drove the last couple of blocks back to my apartment.

We made it back home without further incident, no more red lights and no major traffic. I helped her out of the car and we both walked quickly to the elevator. I hit the button as we both waited rather impatiently for it to arrive. We kept sneaking glances at the other, she kept looking at me from under her lashes and before I knew it I was uncomfortably warm. I started to unbutton my jacket and took it off. I noticed that she was doing the same. We stood side by side, our shoulders touching. I could feel the tension radiating off of both of us in waves.

The elevator made a dinging and the doors opened startling both of us. We stepped in at the same time and as soon as the doors shut I had my arms wrapped back around her. I wasn't sure who moved first but both of our jackets were forgotten on the floor as fingers tangled in hair and our lips met again, this time with far less clothing between the two of us. I could feel the smooth silk of her dress under my fingers as I moved my hands down her back to her ass and grabbed it softly. I heard her squeak and for a moment thought I had pushed to much but then she melted into my touch.

This, I thought, was heaven. This was where I was always meant to be, with her in my arms. Her lips on mine. I walked her backwards until her back came in contact with the wall and she pushed her hips into mine. My hips bucked back into hers and I know she could feel the effect she was having on me and yet she pressed harder against me.

Suddenly the doors were opening again and we were at my floor. We broke apart both breathing heavily. I grabbed her hand and bent down to pick up both coats from the floor and practically ran down the hall to my door. I was fumbling for my keys checking every pocket until I remembered it was in my jacket still. I started searching those when I felt her warm hands sliding over my chest from behind and I groaned. I was about ready to give up and just bust through the door if it meant I'd get her to myself sooner.

Finally I had found my keys and quickly put them into the lock opening the door. I grabbed her hand and pulled her through the doorway and kicked it closed behind her. I pinned her up against the closed door and started to kiss her again. She wrapped both arms around my neck and I reached down grabbing her ass. Jumping up she wrapped both legs around my waist and I began to walk down the hall, my bedroom the final destination. I stumbled a bit as I continued to kiss her and stopped to push her up against the wall again. She moaned into the kiss again and I started to grind my hips into her. She threw her head back, panting and broke our kiss, only I couldn't keep my lips from her as I moved down her neck licking and sucking on the sensitive skin there.

I heard her gasp and smirked to myself loving every reaction I could wring from her. She pushed at my shoulders and I looked up at her. Threw the haze of lust I noticed the panic in her eyes.

"Edward! Let me down." She said.

I looked at her confused. Her eyes got even bigger and I thought for sure she had seen a ghost

"Why don't we just leave. Like now." She was staring to sound panicked but I had no clue what was going on. "Scopa! Edward, we need to leave. NOW!"

Now she was staring to scare me and I stepped back from the wall letting her feet touch the floor. She quickly grabbed my hand and started to pull me back the way we had just come.

I was lost until I heard. "Isabella, why don't you and your _friend_ have a seat and we can all catch up."

She froze and I nearly bumped into her. She began a constant chant of no's while shaking her head back and forth. She was really starting to scare me and I was now hell bent on getting her out of here as fast as possible. I had no clue who was in my apartment or how they had gotten here but I was getting her out of here before I could find out. I started to pull her towards the door now only she shook off my hand.

"Bella," I started, slightly panicked now. "We need to leave, like you said."

She sighed and looked up at me with tears glittering in her eyes. "What's the point Edward. It's all over now."

I was stunned. She was giving up, just like that? She had fought so hard and run for so long, only to have it all end now. I couldn't lose her.

*

* * *

**Dun, Dun, DUUNNNN! Uh Oh! **

**A/N: If I said I'm sorry would you forgive me for taking as long as I did? What if I said I had the plague- no lie- and I also wrote a o/s for mskathy's twifans4haiti? **

**It's really pretty hot. Edward owns a record store and innocent Bella comes in every Saturday before finally deciding to apply for a job. What happens when those two crazy kids have to work with each other?**

** I hope all of you wonderful readers donated so you can read it, and the 270+ other authors who donated. I know, JFC right?**

**I have the outfits for their date all picked out and will be posting it in my profile if you'd like to take a look. You will notice that my Bella is not the Stew. I needed someone a bit more delicate and she looks a bit more Italian then Stew does. Her name is Camilia Belle and there are actually manip'd pics of her and Rob floating around. **

**Thanks for sticking with me!**


End file.
